Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The 2024 Paris Olympics is kicking off on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to inaugurate the event at 7:30 pm local time in the River Seine.
The games will see 10,500 athletes competing at 35 venues for 329 gold medals. For the first time in the history of the Olympic Summer Games, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium. The parade of athletes will be held on the River Seine with boats arranged each national delegation. According to the organizers, these boats will be equipped with cameras to allow television and online viewers to see the athletes up close. The athletes will cross through the center of Paris and reach Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of Olympic protocol and final shows are scheduled to take place.
Nepal has sent seven Nepali athletes – four women and three men – to the Paris Olympics. They will represent Nepal in athletics, shooting, swimming, table tennis, badminton, and judo. Table tennis player Santoo Shrestha and judoka Manita Shrestha Pradhan will jointly carry Nepal’s flag in the parade.
Here we present a brief profile of Nepali athletes participating in the Olympics:
Santoshi Shrestha – Marathon
Santoshi, from Jwalamukhi of Dhading, will represent Nepal in the women’s marathon. She made history in Nepali athletics by winning the gold medal in the women’s 10,000m race at the 2019 South Asian Games. In 2022, she set a national record for the half marathon with a time of 1 hour 14 minutes and 14 seconds. That same year, she secured gold in the 10,000m at the Nepal National Games. In 2023, she continued her winning streak by claiming gold in the 5000m at the Golden Athletics Meet in Nepal and setting a new national record for the 10,000m race in Germany with a time of 34 minutes and 31 seconds. Shrestha holds an MA in Public Administration.
Duana Lama – Swimming
At only 11 years old, Duana Lama set a new national record in the Women’s Open 200m breaststroke. Duana broke the 11-year-old record by more than 5 seconds. Born in Manang, she did her schooling in Thailand where she also honed her swimming skills. Lama not only won two silver medals, she claimed two bronze medals in individual events and helped Nepal claim three bronze medals in relay events in the 13th Asian Games. She won nine gold medals and one silver in the 9th National Games in Pokhara. She was qualified to the Olympics through the university quota. Duana will compete in women’s 200m freestyle.
Alexander Shah – Swimming
Shah is competing in Men’s 100m Freestyle in Paris Olympics. He will be the third swimmer to participate in consecutive editions of the Olympics. He set a national record of 53.41 seconds in 100m freestyle in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Santoo Shrestha – Table Tennis
Santoo defeated compatriot Sanjog Kapali in 4-3 sets in the men’s final of the South Asian Table Tennis Qualifier for the 2024 Olympics held in Kathmandu on Wednesday to book his tickets to Paris. He won bronze in 13th South Asian Games. He is only the third Nepali athlete to qualify for the Olympics after Sangina Vaidya and Deepak Bista. Santoo will compete in the men’s singles event.
Prince Dahal – Badminton
Prince is Nepal’s first-ever representation from badminton in the Olympics. The 20-year-od is competing in the men’s singles event. Dahal first came to notice in the badminton scene when he won the 2018 Dubai International Junior series. He reached a career high of world number seventh of the world junior ranking in March 2020. In 2022, he was ranked number one junior player in the world. Dahal won silver in the 2019 South Asia Under 21 Championships.
Manita Shrestha Pradhan – Judo
Manita Shrestha Pradhan will compete in the women’s 57kg weight category. Born in Panchthar, Manita won a silver medal in the 57kg category at the 2016 South Asian Games. In 2017, she won a bronze medal in the women’s below-57kg weight category in the 11th Asian Cadet. She became the first Nepali woman judoka to win a bout at the Asian Judo Championships in 2017. She has competed in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta as well as the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Sushmita Nepal – Shooting
Susmita will compete in the women’s 10m air rifle event. She qualified for the Paris Olympics from the university quota. Born in Mandan of Kavre, she was selected for training from school-wide talent hunt in 2016. After a week-long training, she topped the school-level selection. She was selected in the Olympics as an wild car entry from the university quota. She had acored 6.16.2 points in the qualification for Asian Championship held in Indonesia. Her first international participation was 10th Asian Air Gun Junior Championship in Japan in 2017.
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