Kathmandu [Nepal], September 4 (ANI): 21-year-old Nepal Para-athlete Palesha Goverdhan, who won bronze medal in Paris Paralympics 2024, returned back with a rousing welcome on Wednesday.
Surrounded by hundreds of supporters and fellow taekwondo practitioners, Goverdhan got covered with “Khada” and flower garlands as she walked out of the airport terminal.
Followed by a band of Army and taekwondo organisations, hundreds of supporters and well-wishers stood in line to welcome the winner of the first ever Olympics medal for the Himalayan Nation.
A serpentine line stretching about 300 metres was seen at the airport to welcome the Paralympian with young boys and girls practising taekwondo waiting to welcome Palesha with flowers and Khada on their hands.
The Olympics medalist after being welcomed at the airport was taken through the various locations of the city and felicitated at the National Sports Council near the Dasaratha Stadium. The officials from the National Sports Council as well as the Sports Minister joined the record-setting athlete to felicitate her for her historic success.
“Everyone had the hope that Palesha Goverdhan would bring a medal from the Paris (Paralympics) 2024, so I kept my promise. I brought a medal back home. This achievement is not solely of mine, it is for all of us. Now, we can proudly say that Nepal does have an Olympic medal. I am proud that I could end the long wait of all of us for an Olympic medal which we thought and seemed impossible to achieve. Now, I believe the young generation also has that confidence to achieve their forte. It’s possible! Although we didn’t have enough facilities, at the last moment we just trained for one month in London. Despite it, on that day of my game, I wore my confidence and believed in myself that I can do it and I did it. I always have been saying, believe in yourself,” the record-setting athlete said as she addressed the felicitation ceremony.
On August 30, Goverdhan created history when she defeated Marija Micev of Serbia 15-8 in the bronze medal match of the women’s K44 under 57 kg weight category taekwondo competition, becoming the first athlete from Nepal to win a Paralympic medal.
Goverdhan’s bout against Micev was going even at 7-7, 8-8 and started scoring kick-after-kick in the final 10 seconds which made her win the historic medal for Nepal.
Goverdhan also became the first Nepali athlete to win a medal at an Olympic level.
Nepal has never won an official medal at the Summer Games in its 60-year-long Olympic history- not considering Bidhan Lama’s bronze in the exhibition taekwondo event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul and the gold presented to Tejbir Bura at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France for his alpinism effort as part of the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition. Neither medal was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
Nepal made its first Paralympics debut at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, sending Nirmala Gyawali in the women’s shot-put event. Jit Bahadur Khadka was the second athlete to participate at the Paralympic Games. He competed in the men’s 100 m at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Para taekwondo athlete Goverdhan in the Tokyo Olympics was close to winning a bronze medal but had failed. In the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Goverdhan, a wildcard entry, won two repechage events to enter the bronze medal final but lost to China’s Li Yujie in the women’s 58 kg K44 in the bronze medal final in Tokyo, finishing fifth. Three years later, she conquered her dream for a historic bronze for the Himalayan Nation.
The Para athlete also won a medal at the Asian Para Games in 2022 held in Hangzhou, China. It was also the first time that a Nepali paraathlete had won a medal at the Asian Para Games.
In Paris this year, she defeated Valeria Morales of Venezuela 31-0 in the round of 16 to progress to the quarter-finals. She lost to Tokyo Paralympics bronze medalist Silvana Fernandes of Brazil 8-10 in the last eight but clawed her way back to defeat Sophie Caverzan of France 2-1 in the repechage contest to set up the bronze medal final against Micev.
Goverdhan and Nepal’s taekwondo team had trained in Manchester, England for a month before heading to Paris.
Born without a left palm, the 21-year-old Goverdhan started practising taekwondo at the age of 10. She became part of the national para taekwondo team in 2016 and made her international debut during the Asian Open Para Taekwondo Championship in Chuncheon, South Korea, where she finished fifth. Goverdhan also won gold in the Second Kathmandu Karogi and Poomsae International Taekwondo Competition 2018, and Asian Youth Para Games 2021 in Bahrain. She is also a bronze medallist of the Fourth Asian Para Taekwondo held in 2018 Vietnam.
Goverdhan will get NRs 6.5 million cash prize for his historic bronze, as provisioned in the National Sports Development Regulation 2022. She was rewarded with Rs 1.3 million for winning bronze at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou. (ANI)
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