Participating in the Olympics is the biggest dream for the players whose sports do not have a World Cup. This dream is even more significant for a country like Nepal because reaching the Olympics is incredibly challenging.
In the last six decades of participating in the Olympics, only Sangina Vaidya in taekwondo (2004), Deepak Bista in taekwondo (2008), and Syantu Shrestha in table tennis (2025) have reached the Olympics by winning qualifiers.
Other 89 players have participated from the universality quota. This quota is allocated so that athletes from weaker countries can play in the Olympics.
Making it to the Olympics
In the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024, Prince Dahal, a badminton player, participated from a universality quota. Dahal is the first Nepali player to participate in badminton in the Olympics.
In one of the Argentine media, the name of badminton players selected for the Olympics was announced. As he watched the news by translating the language, he knew he made it to the Olympics.
“I always had a dream of playing in the Olympics and winning a gold. That news gave me extreme happiness,” says Dahal.
Immediately after his selection in the Olympics, he came to Kathmandu from Pokhara and began practising under the guidance of the coach Gautam Kathyat.
One of the reasons for his selection in the Olympics was his victory over Bahrain’s Adnan Ibrahim in a 2-1 set at the Asia Badminton Championship held in China last March.
There was a high chance that one among them could get a universality quota.
In the second week of June, Dahal went to train at Rising Stars Badminton Academy, Sri Lanka. Tony Wahyudi of Indonesia and Sudip Younjan, badminton coach of the National Sports Council coached Dahal.
With the support of the NSC and the Nepal Olympics Committee, Prince Dahal practised in Sri Lanka for 40 days.
Facing tough opponents
Due to the delay in the registration of the coach’s name, none of his coaches from Nepal could go to the Olympics. After one week of returning from Sri Lanka, he had to leave for Paris without a coach. After the request of the Nepal Badminton Association to the Olympic Organizing Committee, the coach from El Salvador trained Prince during the Olympics.
Prince, who was in Group P, had a first match against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, who is in the top two of the world badminton rankings. Axelsen was the top player he faced in his career. He was a silver medalist in the 2016 Olympics and a gold medalist in 2020.
He won gold in the Badminton World Championships in 2017 and 2022. To play against a player who has won more than 17 gold medals in European competitions was itself a big achievement for a Nepali player.
Dahal was well known about Axelsen. He researched more about him as soon as the tie sheet for the game was in his hands.
A night before playing against Axelsen, he planned to play with control. He planned to execute all the things in the court he learned during the training.
He lost to Axelsen in straight sets, 2-0 (21-8, 21-6). Axelsen won the gold after defeating Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in straight sets, 21-9 and 21-17, in the final. This was his second Olympic gold.
Dahal is happy with his performance against Axelsen. He considers it a huge achievement to have played against an experienced player like Axelsen.
Dahal says the Olympics taught him about patience and the good qualities that the player should have to play in big tournaments.
The major difference between Olympic gold medalist Axelsen and Dahal lies in management and training. Axelsen has a good facility of training, personal coaching and physiotherapist. But Nepal does not even have a coach.
Dahal was not comfortable playing in the Olympics without his coach. Although this was not the first time he had competed in an international match without his coach, he had faced similar situations many times before.
Dahal says that he has not reached a level to play well in the Olympics.
In the second match, Prince was defeated by Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen with scores of 21-7 and 21-5. Similarly in the third match, he lost against Israel’s Misa Zilberman with the score of 21-12 and 21-10.
Nepal started to participate in the Olympics from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, but the country hasn’t won any medals to date.
“Nepal has the potential to win the medals if the country makes proper planning and investment for the sports sector, ” says Dahal.
The preparation before a couple of months of the tournament can not bring medals, he adds.
“Players of other countries prepare themselves for 4-5 years to win medals in the Olympics. But here we practised just two months before. We cannot bring medals in this way.”
Aspiring next Olympics
He further says that the government and private sector should equally support the sports sector.
He says that Nepal will do well in all sports if players are provided with nutritious food, regular practice, and good facilities.
Nepal has a high chance to excel in individual sports. In individual sports, only one person has to play well but in team sports, each player has to play equally well, he says.
In Nepal, there are no national or international-level matches for badminton. In this regard, Dahal is leaving for Australia in a month. He will participate in tournaments in Melbourne and Sydney, and he believes that the experience he gains there will benefit him in the future.
Except for cricket and football, there are very few sports in which players get a salary. Badminton players also do not get a salary. To get an allowance the player has to play big matches. Dahal’s source of income is his job in the APF Club and sponsors.
A lot of players have left the country as they did not see a healthy future for the sportsperson.
“Those players would have remained in the country if they had a proper facility,” says Dahal. “ If things go well, I will stay in Nepal.”
Dahal aims for another Olympics. He says he will try to give his best in all the upcoming matches. Moreover, he also says that he can win a medal in the Olympics if he gets proper training, and support from the government, Nepal Badminton Association and sponsors.
