Seven athletes, one pursuit—the first ever official medal at the Olympics. Be it a bronze, silver or even a gold.

Nepali athletes will compete in seven different events at the 2024 Paris Olympics where they will be driven by a single goal—like in previous participations—to win at least one Olympic medal.

The Summer Olympics in Paris officially kicks off on Friday.

Long-distance runner Santoshi Shrestha, badminton player Prince Dahal, judoka Manita Shrestha Pradhan, shooter Sushmita Nepal, swimmers Alexander Shah and Duana Lama and table tennis player Santoo Shrestha will be representing Nepal at the Olympics in Paris this year.

Nepal made their Olympics debut in 1964 by sending six athletes—marathon runners Bhupendra Bahadur and Ganga Bahadur Thapa, and boxers Namsing Thapa, Bhim Bahadur Thapa, Ram Prasad Gurung and Om Prasad Pun are Nepal’s first Olympians—to Tokyo and has competed in all Summer Olympics except Mexico 1968.

-Unofficial medals-

A total of 86 Nepali athletes have participated—in athletics, swimming, boxing, shooting, judo, weightlifting, archery and taekwondo—in the international multi-sport event before Paris, failing to make a breakthrough on each occasion.

However, technically, Nepal has not been without a medal at the Games.

Tejbir Bura is the first and the only Nepali to get a gold medal in Nepal’s Olympic history.

Bura, a mountaineer from the Gurkha Regiment, was awarded a gold medal for his alpinism effort at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France—the first ever Winter Olympics—as part of the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition. It was a mixed team and thus was not recognised as an official medal for Nepal.

Bidhan Lama also won a bronze medal in Taekwondo at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. But this was an unofficial bronze medal as taekwondo was then an exhibition event.

A total of 120 men and 62 women martial artists from 35 nations competed across eight different weight categories in the demonstration sport in Seoul. Lama defeated Ebenezer Ghansah of Great Britain in the men’s finweight (50kg) class in the round of 16, Choi Chan-ok of West Germany in the quarter-finals before losing to American Juan Miguel Moreno in the semis.

Taekwondo entered the Olympics programme in Sydney 2000.

Unfortunately, Nepal’s performance at the Olympics has so far been disappointing and winning a medal has been a distant dream. And, it has appeared that players from Nepal have mostly taken the Olympics platform either to gain international experience or set national records.

After taekwondo was officially introduced at the Olympics, Sangina Baidya became the first Nepali player to qualify for the Olympics at Athens 2004 after she won a bronze medal in the Asian Qualifying Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand.

Deepak Bista then won a bronze in the Asian qualifying event in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Both Baidya (women’s 49 kg weight category) and Bista (men’s 80 kg) failed to get past the preliminary round, also losing the repechage events.

-Can Santoo light up table tennis in Olympics debut?-

But table tennis player Santoo could go a step further than Baidya and Bista in Paris.

Santoo won men’s singles gold at the South Asian Qualification Tournament in Kathmandu in May this year, becoming only the third Nepali player to qualify for the Olympics—which also set the stage for Nepal’s debut in table tennis competition at the Games.

Following the qualifying tournament in Kathmandu, Santoo returned to Australia, where he is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Information Technology, for further training.

“Santoo has been preparing well. He has been sharing photos and videos of his regular training and getting feedback from us,” Santoo’s coach Rajendra Kapali told the Post.

“He trained with stronger sparring partners in Australia, which has also improved his preparations for the Olympics,” Kapali added.

Twenty-four-year-old Santoo Shrestha is the lowest seeded table tennis player among the 67 competitors in Paris and has been placed into the bottom place of the preliminary round.

He will need to beat Diaw Ibrahima of Senegal in the preliminary round on July 27 to progress into the round of 64.

Shrestha is a four-time national champion and the winner of one silver medal and four bronze medals at the 2019 South Asian Games. He had teamed up with his coach Nabita Shrestha at the SAG in the mixed doubles.

“Santoo is an attacking player. He is a champion of the mind games and understands his opponents. I believe Santoo will present a tough challenge to his opponents,” Nabita said.

-Introduction of badminton-

Nepal is also making its debut in badminton in Paris, 32 years after the sport was officially included in the Olympics in Barcelona 1992.

Dahal has been drawn in a tough Group P for the men’s singles competition alongside world number two Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, 2016 European U17 Championships Nhat Nguyen of Ireland and experienced Israeli Misha Zilberman, who was a bronze medallist at the European Badminton Championships in 2022.

The 20-year-old Dahal, a winner of the 2018 Dubai International Junior Series, is at his prime. He rose to the top of Badminton World Federation’s list of men’s juniors in 2022. He is also a silver medallist at the 2019 South Asia U-21 Championships.

“I have brought a lot of improvement in my game in the past six months. I am confident I can give a good fight in Paris,” said Dahal, who prepared for the Olympics in Sri Lanka.

“It is good that I have been drawn with top players. I take this draw very positively. Win or lose… I will gain a lot of positives from the Olympics,” Dahal added.

Dahal, who entered the Paris 2024 on universality spot, will begin his Olympics campaign against Axelsen on July 27 at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.

A total of 41 players (from 36 countries)—split into 13 groups of three or four—are competing in the men’s singles badminton at Paris 2024. The group winners will advance to the knockout stage. Each game of the round-robin tournament will be played in a best-of-three format.

-‘Golden girl’-

Nepal is also sending an athlete in the women’s marathon for the first time in 28 years.

Last time, Bimala Rana Magar represented Nepal in the women’s marathon at Atlanta 1996. Nepal first sent its athletes in the women's marathon at Seoul 1988 when Raj Kumar Pandey and Menuka Rawat had taken part. Since Sydney 2000, Nepal has been participating only in short and middle distance events in women’s athletics.

Santoshi, also known as ‘golden girl’, is going to revive Nepal’s marathon history at the Paris Olympics.

The 30-year-old long distance runner started doing the marathon only in January this year but made it a fairytale debut by winning gold medal in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Dhaka Marathon, also breaking the national record in the process. Santoshi took 2 hours 46 minutes and 23 seconds to complete the 42.195 kilometres distance, eclipsing the previous record held by Pushpa Bhandari.

Santoshi said she aims to improve her record and is determined to complete the marathon in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

“I am worried about the weather and the routes which could possibly be obstacles during the race. But I have been training off road, on pitch [asphalt] roads…everywhere to prepare for Paris,” added Santoshi, who was a gold medallist in the 10,000 metres race at the 13th South Asian Games.

One major concern for Santoshi will be the metatarsal injury on her feet.

“I have been careful with my injury while training. I have been attending therapy, gym and doing massage,” she added.

Santoshi has won more than three dozen golds in domestic competitions.

The women’s marathon takes place on August 11—the final day of Paris 2024.

-Beyond Heat?-

Nepal has traditionally been well represented in swimming at the Olympics since making its debut in 1996 Atlanta. Nisma Gurung and Sita Ram Shahi represented Nepal in Atlanta.

Since then, ten more swimmers including Prasiddha Jung Shah, Nayana Shakya, Karishma Karki, Sirish Gurung, Gaurika Singh and Alexander Shah have participated at the Olympics.

But their performances have been limited to setting national records and none of them have gone past the heat round.

Alexander will be the third Nepali swimmer after Prasiddha (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and Gaurika (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020) to participate in the consecutive editions of the Olympics. Alexander will compete in the men's 100m freestyle in Paris.

Baikuntha Manandhar appeared at the Olympics four successive times (Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988) while Hari Bahadur Rokaya (Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992) and Tika Bogati (Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996) represented Nepal twice in athletics. Boxers Dal Bahadur Rana Magar (Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988) also participated two times.

Alexander holds the national record in men’s 100 m freestyle with a time of 52.17 seconds, which he set during the World Aquatics Champions in Doha. He had improved his own previous timing of 53.41 seconds set during Tokyo 2020.

Duana Lama will compete in the women’s 200m freestyle and aim to break the record of 2 minutes 11.94 seconds set by Gaurika at the 20th National Swimming Championships in 2017.

“Our target at the Olympics is to improve our national records. Given the preparations of Alexander and Duana, we will achieve that goal,” said former player and swimming coach Nayana Shakya, who participated in the 100m breaststroke at Athens 2004.

The heats of the women’s 200m freestyle and men’s 100m freestyle will take place on July 28 and July 30 respectively.

Judoka Manita Shrestha Pradhan and shooter Sushmita Nepal are the other players representing Nepal at the Paris 2024.

Shrestha Pradhan, who qualified via continents quota based on Olympics point ranking, will compete in women’s 57 kg weight category. Her coach Deve Thapa, a former Olympican, hopes Shrestha Pradhan will win at least one bout in the competition.

Shrestha Pradhan, 25, said she is ready to accept the challenge.

“The Olympics is the biggest sporting stage. It is the dream of every athlete to participate at the Olympics. It was my dream too. I am prepared to challenge any opponent,” said Shrestha Pradhan.

A total of 372 judokas will be competing across 14 weight categories in Paris. Men’s and women’s events will have an equal 186 participants. Judo competition begins on July 27.

The 24-year-old Sushmita aims to break the national record in women’s 10m air rifle and get past the preliminary round.

“I will try my best to get a good score. My target is to set a national record in the event and progress beyond the preliminary round,” said Sushmita.

The shooting begins on July 28.