Shyam Dhakal
c/o 80 London Road
Tunbridge Wells
Kent TN1 1DZ
England
00 44 1892 544 833

Mr. Olivier Niamkey
Olympic Solidarity
Lausanne
Switzerland

By e-mail 8 November 2009

Nepal Olympic Committee

Dear Mr. Olivier

Thank you for your mail dated 3 November and your very kind efforts to assist me.

As a loyal patriot, it is with great regret that I make this reply but it seems my broader duty to fully inform you of the facts.

Your mail suggests that you are not yet in receipt of my completed Financial Statement for the Period March-June 2009. As the NOC has held these documents since 5 October, and since they directly informed me on 20 October that they had already then sent them to you, it appears that my concerns about their honesty are confirmed.

Please read the summary of communication between myself and the NOC below. This should greatly assist your understanding of events. A full dossier of e-mails, formal letters and contemporaneous notes from telephone calls is available upon your specific request.

As you may ascertain from the Annex summary, the situation is more complex than your questions would otherwise clarify but I shall answer them here in brief;

1. I received $6000 for the Period March –June.
2. I received $3000 on 20 July and a further $3000 on 28 September. The circumstances of these delays are detailed in the annex below.
3. I submitted a signed and completed Financial Statement on 5 October. I am not qualified to submit the Technical Report on myself. To my certain knowledge the training centre was never asked by NOC to provide a technical evaluation and I am prohibited from asking it from them myself.
4. I signed the Financial Statement on 5 October immediately upon receipt of the required paperwork.
5. I have received no other funding from the NOC ever in all the 9 seasons of my training.
6. I had frequent e-mail and some telephone communication with the NOC throughout the period 10 May to 20 October. A full dossier is held
7. I was not aware that Mr. Sherpa had been awarded a Solidarity Scholarship. In fact the NOC on 21 July directly implied that he had not been given any funding. I do not know Mr. Sherpa personally but I have a contact address. I have never contacted him.

Whilst I fully appreciate that issues between National Federations and coaches are usually outside the Solidarity remit, I believe the circumstances involving Mr. Morley are highly relevant to this situation.

Whilst his function as a trainer can be replaced with Solidarity funding, his capacities as Team Manager (and thereby the provider of equipment, logistics, visas etc) cannot be. Please be aware that the NOC purposefully misled you and the media over his official status last May and there is substantial documentary evidence to prove this. Therefore his dismissal by the NOC after he defended IOC principles and refused to make false declarations to Solidarity as they demanded has left me without any logistical support. The NOC have not replaced him or otherwise covered any of his functions and have banned me from using his experience and assistance ever since.

This is highly relevant here because, had we never been involved with Solidarity, the whole team would still be in training, I would have dropped the last 10 FIS points to be fully qualified for Vancouver and Nepal would have had a really good team (in Asian terms) ready for Kazakhstan in 2011.

As it is the whole team has disintegrated, our training base is abandoned and Nepal no longer has any active Alpine skiers at FIS level. I am $10,000 in debt because I never got the funding last season that NOC promised me, my funding to continue this season in training has been denied to me, I am banned from using the sponsors again and my chances of Olympic qualification lessen every day. In short I have sacrificed 8 years of my life, tens of thousands in earnings and the chances of a decent career outside sport for absolutely nothing.

And I feel innocent of any wrongdoing. I have trained earnestly for many years to become not only the best skier in Nepal, but the best skier Nepal has ever had. I have never broken the law, taken drugs or even been drunk. I completed all paperwork quickly and honestly and I have always been respectful and polite to the NOC. But still I am treated like a dog and discarded months before the target of every athlete’s ambition and the climax of my career.

I therefore feel that my NOC has directly cheated me of 8 years of my life. Besides everything they have done in the past, (for example it took 4 years and a public campaign in Nepal just to get a FIS license) over the past 6 months alone the NOC have repeatedly lied to me, lied to the IOC, lied to the media, attempted to defraud me (and therefore Solidarity) of thousands of dollars, intimidated me with threats and blackmail, made entirely unreasonable demands upon me and completely ruined my chances of qualifying for Vancouver. They have even refused to supply me with any official letters to allow me the necessary visas to go to France and continue training.

I do not know if this matter can be resolved. Without my old team and trainers around me, and all the friends and logistic network at Les Arcs, I feel utterly lonely and demoralised.
I do not believe that the Olympic movement was set up to facilitate this level of abuse of athletes by their National Associations and I call upon the IOC to intercede, not only to protect my interests and those of Nepal eager to see representation in the ‘Blue Ribbon’ of Winter Olympic Sports, but also to prevent other young athletes from wasting their lives in the same way.

I believe it only fair that I am given the full funding awarded to me in November 2008 and that my debts incurred under the reasonable expectation that I would receive it are removed from me.
I believe it only fair that I am permitted to accept the wider sponsorship, equipment and logistic management at the ski base in Les Arcs where I can train with those who have been with me throughout my career and thereby prepare myself physically and mentally for respectable participation at Vancouver. .
And I believe it only fair that special dispensation is given me over the 10pts FIS required for qualification, on the grounds that my entire training in 2009 has been substantially and unfairly hindered by the NOC, so that I may train on in full confidence that I shall compete at Vancouver and not rashly enter earlier competition under undue stress and therefore be at risk of serious injury.

Effectively my proposed solution is to restore the situation to where it would have been had these events not taken place.

If the IOC can work together with the NOC to achieve this simple solution then not only can the matter be amicably resolved but my confidence in the institution of sport may be restored and we can work together to achieve solid representation for Nepal at Kazakhstan in 2011.

Of course I am open minded to any other amicable solution you might suggest but without resolution in time for Vancouver I can only seek proper redress from those legally responsible and pass this issue, along with several others concerning the NOC, to others who will represent it at the Olympic Ethics Commission and the civil courts in due course. I am that aggrieved by these events.

My contact details are supplied in the letterhead as you request. Please note that I am only able to take telephone calls at pre-arranged times and that I am not able to negotiate or discuss any issues informally. I believe this matter to be sufficiently serious that all communication should be in writing. I am however perfectly willing to satisfy you by phone that this letter is genuine and that, although it has obviously been prepared under the advice and assistance of my family in England, it nonetheless fully expresses my sentiments.

Sincerely yours

Shyam Dhakal

Annex; Summary of communication between Sam Dhakal and NOC
10 May to 20 October 2009.

1. About 10 May In an unexpected phone call, I was told by NOC that my Solidarity Scholarship would after all be paid (after the earlier complications) but that I could only have the funding and any future National Team selection on condition that I agreed to cut all contact, funding and assistance from former Nepal Team Manager, coach and sponsor Richard Morley. I was forced to agree to this because without selection my entire career was wasted.
2. 27/28 May The Scholarship was confirmed and my bank account details were given to NOC.
3. 4 June NOC asked me to include equipment expenses in my monthly budget. I refused because Solidarity regulations clearly do not include equipment costs. I heard nothing more for 6 weeks.
4. 16 July $3000 is sent to my account without any indication of the monthly allowance, how long the funding covered or when the scholarship began. Despite this the NOC immediately demand receipts – which is of course impossible without that information.
5. 20 July I actually receive the money and ask for details of start date and monthly allowance.
6. 21 July NOC inform me in writing that the Scholarship ‘started from MAY due to Mr. Richard Morley’. But the monthly allowance was still not specified.
NOC again demanded receipts and warned ‘without the financial report of first payment IOC will not give second instalment’. This directly implied that NOC had only received $3000 from IOC for a whole four month period.
NOC also rather unpleasantly informed me of Mr, Sherpa’s achievements ‘without any grant’ asserting that he was a better patriot, a better skier and had achieved better results.
I was told to act ‘promptly’ on the matter of receipts even though the money had been in my account for less than 24 hours.
7. I took advice from my family and friends in UK. I could not send any receipts without knowing the monthly allowance. Also the start date in May prevented me from using the allowance to cover my expenses during the ski season when I spent $16,000 under the reasonable expectation that my scholarship had started in November.
I felt it unfair (and still do) to be penalised because of an argument between Mr. Morley and the NOC. I believe NOC acted wrongly to Mr. Morley when he refused to falsify Solidarity documents as they demanded. I was present during that telephone call (in December 2008) and can testify to events. I also believe NOC acted wrongly around 1 May when giving wholly false statements to the IOC and the Media concerning Mr. Morley, myself and the other members of the ski team. These were downright lies. Mr. Morley had been the official Nepal Ski Team Manager since 2001 and I have documents written to my family to prove it. All the athletes and the training programme were officially authorized by the NOC and yet they convinced the IOC and the media otherwise. Aware of my lowly status I did not inform NOC of these opinions.
8. 7 August After due consideration I formally inform NOC of these particular concerns;
(a) I felt the delay was not caused by Mr. Morley but by the NOC. I reminded them that it took 2 months for NOC to give me the contract and another 2 months to even acknowledge my signature upon it. The financial penalty on me was therefore unfair.
(b) I felt the NOC had both insulted and unfairly reprimanded me by their unnecessary references to Mr. Sherpa.
(c) Their mail also revealed a complete lack of knowledge by the NOC (and the Ski Association) of Alpine Skiing in almost every aspect. I therefore told them of the differences between Alpine and Nordic qualification levels, training and equipment costs, dangers, difficulties etc etc.
(d) I formally asked for a copy of the contract so I could find out what the monthly allowance was and what conditions applied to me.
9. 8-12 August. Despite telling NOC that my employers prohibited mobile phone calls I was immediately bombarded with telephone calls to the extent that I had to switch my phone off. On 12 August I informed NOC that the Contract issue was not a matter for discussion and that IOC regulations demanded that I was given a copy and told the monthly allowance and proper start dates. I agreed to take a phone call by appointment on 17 August when I had a day free.
10. 17 August. I received an extremely unpleasant phone call by NOC. Their tone was threatening. They denied all responsibility for the delay from November to February which caused the argument with Mr. Morley. But having been with Mr. Morley throughout that time I knew they were lying. They also repeatedly confirmed that the Scholarship started in May and that there was nothing they could do about it. Most of the call was taken up with a very nasty character attack on Mr. Morley with whom I had lived and worked over 9 full ski seasons and whom I knew to be innocent of their allegations.
I therefore concluded the call after a few minutes by simply reminding them that they must send me the contract under IOC regulations. I did not inform them of my unease with their attitude.
11. 19 August. The NOC sent me only the signature sheet of the contract without the complete text. I immediately replied asking for the whole contract. There was no response.
12. 29 August. After 10 days without reply and upon taking legal advice, I sent a formal letter to NOC explaining that, without my formal agreement of their contract, the actual contract I signed in January must legally be in force as I have signed no other. That contract stipulated a start date in November.
I also requested certified documentation necessary to obtain my visas for travel to Norway, France and America for pre season training and competition.
13. 30 August. The NOC finally send me the full contract they consider in force dated late May 2009. It stated that the Scholarship funding started in MARCH and not in MAY as they had earlier insisted. Obviously this made a huge difference, not only of the extra $3000 due to me, but also because the regulations about ‘Period’ expenses then applied to the $3000 already paid and allowed it to be used for main ski season expenses as intended by the IOC.
The accompanying letter falsely asserted that NOC had always told me it began in March. This was completely untrue.
NOC also told me to write all letters myself and not use any help from anyone else. I thought this unfair because athletes do not normally have the educational level required under these circumstances and NOC are at liberty to use legal advice at any time.
NOC made no reference to my request for documentation required to gain visas and never did. I am therefore unable to leave England and carry out training in suitable countries.
14. 7 September. The NOC demanded ‘bills’ for $6000.
15. 10 September I sent NOC the ‘Period Two’ training invoice for $6,000 and certified receipts for the $3000 I had paid the training company.
NOC immediately sent me the Period Financial Statement and asked me to complete and sign it.
16. 12 September I inform NOC that I cannot sign and complete the Period Financial Statement when I have only received half the money due for that period. NOC immediately responded in an emotive mail stating that ‘without NOC you neither get any scholarship nor able to participate in the Winter Olympic Games’. They again demanded I sign and complete the Financial Statement before they would send me the other half of the payment. The context appeared clearly threatening.
17. 14 September I again informed NOC of IOC regulations concerning certification and quoted the relevant text. I formally refused to make any false certification.
NOC immediately responded denying their attempt to make me sign a false declaration saying ‘we just want to ensure that you are in training centre or not’. Of course this was nonsense as my attendance at the centre was public knowledge.
Instead of full certification NOC now demanded ‘the bills & Invoice’ for the whole Period before they would release the second payment. This again was nonsense because I had already sent them these documents on 10 September and they had acknowledged receipt on the same day. Finally NOC warned me again not to use any help in writing letters to them.
18. 16 September I remind NOC that they already have full invoices for the Period and that my attendance at the training centre was well known to them. I repeated that I would sign the Financial Statement when I received the funding stated within it.
19. 28 September. The second payment of $3000 finally arrived in my bank account without any notice from NOC. Therefore I did not notice it for several days.
20. 4 October NOC again bombarded me phone calls and another mail demanding receipts and certification. Naturally it took several days to transfer the money to the training company and gain their receipt. Only then could I forward the paperwork as they demanded. I considered their harassment unreasonable.
21. 5 October Full receipts and a signed Financial Certificate for Period Two was completed and sent to NOC. I was given no acknowledgement or response.
22. 19 October I asked NOC for information on the progress of Period Three payments as without the scholarship funding, and without any help or finance from my former sponsors, I was unable to continue my training.
23. 20 October I received this reply; Well, we acknowledge the receipt of the documents in regard to the Olympic Scholarship. We have already sent those documents to the IOC. Once we receive confirmation and sum for the next four months we will definitely transfer to your account. Since you sent Financial Reports of March 09 – June 09 lately, may be due to that they are delaying. Anyway let’s hope for the betterment.
24. 3 November Without any further response I was obliged to ask Solidarity for assistance.