Make a note in your diary: 10:00am to 10:23am (GMT), Friday 3rd August 2012, Why? Read on.
The diamond Jubilee is over, millions of £££ spent to allow(!) Cheryl Cole sing to the Queen, the UK now turns it's attention to sports to make up for it. Yawwwn :-O some of you might think - a lot of you have no interest in sports, but now the England Football Team are playing in Euro 2012, and the Olympics are on our door step, there will be no getting away! However, there is a lot of goodness that comes out watching sports, you see how the professionals execute their best, pushing the human body to the limit. From time to time I wonder about my own sporting experience, how my parents (and society) didn't particularly encourage me to go further in sports, and how more successful Nepali sportswomen and men (see what I did there) who have broken the social norm's have played out (unintentional pun) their sporting passions.
Firstly, to the set the scene, I would have regarded myself as a good football player when I was in primary school and secondary school, my natural position was in either defence or right wing. For some reason, I was never effective as a striker, I seemed to always run back too far to stop the ball going too near my team's half, hanging around at the top waiting for the ball was just not my thing. I needed to know what was going on up field and be ready to make the heroic 'Sol Campbell' tackle[1] to prevent the other team from scoring. My pace wasn't too bad either, as well as good at chasing strikers, I was effective at creating space on the wing and legging it down the outside towards the corner flag to finally whip one in for the boys waiting in the box. So yes, I was good ;), I hardly ever got picked last when it came to P.E. (Physical Education or Sports) lessons and I played football, representing secondary school every year (I secretly liked rounders too because I was a bad ass* at throwing and getting the opposing team out; for some reason it's more of a 'girly' sport now, sigh). To top that, I was attending martial art classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout my secondary school years. I surprise myself now how active I was back then, a different story with todays school kids (so I hear): crisps and coke cans for breakfast, PlayStations instead of Park-Swings [2], face-booking instead face-to-face and Bey-Blades whatever the hell they are), maybe its just the media portraying kids like terrorists.
Either way, no matter how much I enjoyed taking part in a variety of sports, it all seemed to go down hill towards the end of school. Some of my school friends use to play for a local club, and they use to always say, "You should come to our practice sessions, we need good players like you". But my parents would say, "No, it's dark outside, we don't want you going out after five-thirty." I didn't understand the logic, but despite the disappointment being an obedient child I just obeyed. As for my martial arts, I did well in the 4 years I trained, but I gradually kept on skipping lessons before leaving all together until I moved away to uni. Apart from the occasional kick about in the park, the rare gym appearances and morning jog, I had pretty much spent my twenties not participating in anything regular. It seems to happen to the best of us, and whilst we cheer on the Michael Phelps, Usain Bolts and Jennifer Enniss of this world, take a moment and bow down to the Nepali sportswomen and sportsmen who despite the lack of facilities and pressures of society to go to work or education (or even just abscond Nepal), make it to the Olympics and remain faithful to their nation and sporting discipline.
This Summer at the London 2012 Olympics, look out for a Miss Shreya Dhital, she will be participating in the 50m freestyle swimming heats (first stage). As far as I know, she is Nepal's National record holder for the 50m butterfly, currently standing at 34.75 secs [3]. The current world record for 50m freestyle is 23.75secs [4], so competition is likely to be tough but I wish Shreya the best in London and don't forget if I am correct, you'll see Shreya between 10:00am to 10:23am (GMT), Friday 3rd August 2012 probably on BBC 1 ( but check your Olympics TV schedule). There will be other Nepali participants taking part in Table Tennis, Weight Lifting and maybe some others sports too, but I can't track their names :-( They are training at Kent University so if anyone knows any more, do let me know.
So what's the moral of this post? If your good at something, whether it's a sport, a field of study, hobby, whatever it is big or small, stick with it. I have no regrets for my sporting choices. If I was a smarter kid, maybe I could have found a way to get those extra football sessions, and found a way to carry on with martial arts. Maybe with some motivation or inspiration from somewhere I could have gone further, but that's just life, I got distracted, found other priorities and moved on. A decade or so later, I've now returned to martial arts, and take part in any sporting activity that is going on with my various social groups. It feels great from a social perspective as well my personal well being. So if you're reading this, wondering whether you should go hit the football field, wrestling mat, basketball court, swimming pool, etc, what is stopping you? Hard work perhaps, but then everything requires hard work. No one will be complaining when you're like Miss Shreya Dhital when she is able to command 15,000 Nepali Rupees for breaking the National Records. So get out there, make your dreams happen! :-)
My best wishes to all Olympic hopefuls.
[1] Sol Campbell's never ending tackle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYN7Vgn924c
[2] Admittingly, I do have a Playstation, it was fun at first but now it has just become an expensive bluray player. I had a NES too when I was 8 years old - but I did my school homework first (that's one for another time).
[3] http://www.khelkud.com/2011/08/shreya-dhital-won-11-golds-and-national.html
[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/sports/swimming/events/womens-50m-freestyle
* bad ass means 'good' in slang.
The diamond Jubilee is over, millions of £££ spent to allow(!) Cheryl Cole sing to the Queen, the UK now turns it's attention to sports to make up for it. Yawwwn :-O some of you might think - a lot of you have no interest in sports, but now the England Football Team are playing in Euro 2012, and the Olympics are on our door step, there will be no getting away! However, there is a lot of goodness that comes out watching sports, you see how the professionals execute their best, pushing the human body to the limit. From time to time I wonder about my own sporting experience, how my parents (and society) didn't particularly encourage me to go further in sports, and how more successful Nepali sportswomen and men (see what I did there) who have broken the social norm's have played out (unintentional pun) their sporting passions.
 |
| Hate Sports? There is a society for that, and they really hate sports! |
Firstly, to the set the scene, I would have regarded myself as a good football player when I was in primary school and secondary school, my natural position was in either defence or right wing. For some reason, I was never effective as a striker, I seemed to always run back too far to stop the ball going too near my team's half, hanging around at the top waiting for the ball was just not my thing. I needed to know what was going on up field and be ready to make the heroic 'Sol Campbell' tackle[1] to prevent the other team from scoring. My pace wasn't too bad either, as well as good at chasing strikers, I was effective at creating space on the wing and legging it down the outside towards the corner flag to finally whip one in for the boys waiting in the box. So yes, I was good ;), I hardly ever got picked last when it came to P.E. (Physical Education or Sports) lessons and I played football, representing secondary school every year (I secretly liked rounders too because I was a bad ass* at throwing and getting the opposing team out; for some reason it's more of a 'girly' sport now, sigh). To top that, I was attending martial art classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout my secondary school years. I surprise myself now how active I was back then, a different story with todays school kids (so I hear): crisps and coke cans for breakfast, PlayStations instead of Park-Swings [2], face-booking instead face-to-face and Bey-Blades whatever the hell they are), maybe its just the media portraying kids like terrorists.
Either way, no matter how much I enjoyed taking part in a variety of sports, it all seemed to go down hill towards the end of school. Some of my school friends use to play for a local club, and they use to always say, "You should come to our practice sessions, we need good players like you". But my parents would say, "No, it's dark outside, we don't want you going out after five-thirty." I didn't understand the logic, but despite the disappointment being an obedient child I just obeyed. As for my martial arts, I did well in the 4 years I trained, but I gradually kept on skipping lessons before leaving all together until I moved away to uni. Apart from the occasional kick about in the park, the rare gym appearances and morning jog, I had pretty much spent my twenties not participating in anything regular. It seems to happen to the best of us, and whilst we cheer on the Michael Phelps, Usain Bolts and Jennifer Enniss of this world, take a moment and bow down to the Nepali sportswomen and sportsmen who despite the lack of facilities and pressures of society to go to work or education (or even just abscond Nepal), make it to the Olympics and remain faithful to their nation and sporting discipline.
This Summer at the London 2012 Olympics, look out for a Miss Shreya Dhital, she will be participating in the 50m freestyle swimming heats (first stage). As far as I know, she is Nepal's National record holder for the 50m butterfly, currently standing at 34.75 secs [3]. The current world record for 50m freestyle is 23.75secs [4], so competition is likely to be tough but I wish Shreya the best in London and don't forget if I am correct, you'll see Shreya between 10:00am to 10:23am (GMT), Friday 3rd August 2012 probably on BBC 1 ( but check your Olympics TV schedule). There will be other Nepali participants taking part in Table Tennis, Weight Lifting and maybe some others sports too, but I can't track their names :-( They are training at Kent University so if anyone knows any more, do let me know.
 |
| Shreya Dhital - this is for real, it's a Nepali at the Olympics! Namaste :-) |
My best wishes to all Olympic hopefuls.
[1] Sol Campbell's never ending tackle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYN7Vgn924c
[2] Admittingly, I do have a Playstation, it was fun at first but now it has just become an expensive bluray player. I had a NES too when I was 8 years old - but I did my school homework first (that's one for another time).
[3] http://www.khelkud.com/2011/08/shreya-dhital-won-11-golds-and-national.html
[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/sports/swimming/events/womens-50m-freestyle
* bad ass means 'good' in slang.