Early Days 1999 - 2001

The argument between Palikhe and Rana dragged on for nearly three years. But Richard used the time as best as he could. He completed the ski centre in Les Arcs and Jayaram began the long path of learning to ski, learning to race and achieving Olympic qualification standards. But without official ISF recognition of Rana’s ski association no other Nepali athletes could join the scheme particularly as the French authorities refused to grant season long visas unless the training centre was internationally recognised. Even the king was in difficulties. The Palace could not be seen to take sides between the warring politicians and Prince Nirajan found himself with other arrangements when he left Eton in 1998.

The loss of the Prince presented other difficulties. Richard Morley was a reasonably wealthy man with a successful hotel business and a strong background in the theatre. But he was no billionaire. He was able to house, feed, train and equip the Nepali ski racers but the cost of their travel to and from Nepal, their visa arrangements and their hotel/travel expenses when travelling around Europe for competitions was a considerable financial strain upon him. He discussed the situation with Rana in 1999 and made a straight forwards deal with him. As long as any international funding especially given to support the athletes actually in training and competing in competitions was passed on to them he would formally sponsor the team and take on other skiers. Rana agreed and made Richard Ski Team Manager and Winter Sports Advisor to the NOC. But the argument with Palikhe still dragged on.

Besides his duties in the ski world Richard was also invited by Nepal’s leading broadsheet newspaper, SamarchaPatra, to become a weekly columnist on the strength of his earlier contributions to British newspapers and media experience. His Sunday column, ‘Nepali LaiPatra’ (Letter to Nepal) was a considerable success and he caught the attention of various ministers and politicians. Plainly the situation between Palikhe and Rana was an absurdity and towards the end of 2000 the Prime Minister finally ordered the pair of them to meet in the Sports Ministry and remain in conference until they found agreement on the ‘ownership’ of the ski association. It worked and the ISF finally awarded Jayaram Khadka a FIS license for him to race in international competitions. And Richard took on another young Nepali, Prem Thapa, to become the first new member of the team. So 2001 started with great hope for the future.

Jayaram in his fourth season was now finally able to race at international level but it was not easy. The step up in class and equipment was a quantum leap for him and the pressure of having just one season at FIS level to qualify for the 2002 Olympic was enormous. In January he injured an arm in a silly fall whilst warming up and a month later he badly damaged a knee when race training with the Les Arcs Ski Club on the very icy Cachette Olympic course. That needed nearly a month for recovery. But on 27 March 2001 at La Rosiere on the St Bernard Pass, where Hannibal once crossed the Alps with his elephants 2200 hundred years before, Jayaram Khadka became the first Nepali skier to compete in an FIS event. Of course he was last of the finishers but 266 FIS points in his first Giant Slalom after a big injury was a promising start and there was no doubt that he had great talent.

Jay Alpine racing, at La Rosiere, France, March 2001. The 1st Nepal participation in Alpine FIS racing.

But there was not enough time left for him to safely qualify for Salt Lake. There was only one more week of racing opportunities left. He valiantly raced in 5 more FIS Giant Slaloms over that week trying his hardest to get his score down to the mandatory 140 FIS point level for Olympic Alpine qualification but tiredness overcame him and the task was impossible. He set a new Nepali record of 254 FIS points on 2 April at Val D’Isere but couldn’t better it. The season was over.

And then a few weeks later Nepal was struck by a disaster that plunged the whole nation into grief. On 1 June, King Birendra and Prince Nirajan were amongst those killed in the horrifying Palace massacre that shocked the world. A lone gunman, reportedly the Crown Prince and Patron of the NOC, shot 15 people at an evening reception in the garden pavilion. It was unbelievable and a terrible personal tragedy for Richard and the team which had lost a very great friend.

And it placed Richard in considerable difficulties as a journalist. Having been known to some members of the royal family he was well placed to learn a number of details that were unknown to others and extremely relevant in the understanding of what had happened. Moreover Richard had also served in the British Royal Navy and had been involved in intelligence work as a young man. Consequently he was aware of other factors that could have yet greater relevance. But in the climate of political chaos and power vacuum that always follows royal assassinations the publication of any opinion other than that officially announced by the authorities is always dangerous. But Richard knew that the official version was untrue. It was simply beyond belief. And so on 24th June 2001, loyal to the king who had been so kind to him and to the Prince he so nearly had the opportunity to train, he published his column stating his genuine concerns over the official version. A fortnight later after receiving a deluge of further information he published the most likely course of events that night. And he consequently made some very powerful enemies in Nepal.

You can read the articles here
http://www.daijhi.com/laipatra28.htm , http://www.daijhi.com/laipatra30.htm

In the autumn of 2001 Richard returned to Nepal and met with Rana to discuss a route to get the nation finally to the Winter Olympics. Not only had Nepal never had a skier before, but the nation with the world’s highest mountains had never before been represented at the Winter Games either. There was a lot at stake.

Richard advised Rana that it was impossible for Jayaram to qualify in Alpine racing as the qualification level was extremely strict for safety reasons. It would take him at least another year if not two to reach the required standard. But cross country skiing was another matter. The sport was far safer and technically much easier than Alpine skiing. Consequently the qualification level was virtually an open door as competitors needed only to finish 5 FIS cross country events in order to qualify. Rana agreed and in late November, just 2 months before the Olympics, Jayaram Khadka put on cross country skis for the very first time and began to learn how to use them.

At the beginning there was absolutely no one at the ski base able to help him. Not only was Richard still in Nepal but all of the other team staff were also Alpine specialists. Very suddenly everyone had to try a completely different sport. The only similarity between them was that snow was involved. Every other aspect of the sport was different. But on 1 December 2001 at Goms in Switzerland Jayaram became the first Nepali to race in a cross country event, just a week after starting the sport. He finished the 10 km course nearly an hour after the main racers and having fallen over so often that his body was numb. His score of 1221 FIS points was possibly a record low score in the sport but he finished – that was the main thing. Over the next 4 weeks he raced in 4 more events doing somewhat better in the sprint events (1.5kms) but not really improving his 10km performances. Fighting pain and exhaustion all the way he finished every course and qualified for the Olympics on 4 January 2002 at Furtwangen in Germany. It was a truly valiant effort.

FIS 10km Pursuit Race Wald, Switzerland 28th December 2001

Meanwhile Richard was still in Nepal where Rana had asked him to select two more skiers for the team, a boy and a girl, in order to give it strength for the future. Prem Thapa had dropped out after a season’s training in favour of a University career and Richard needed to find two new skiers fast. 16 year old Laxmi Khadka was a relative of Jayaram and known to him. She was an obvious choice to be the first female ski racer as the family connection would make her feel more comfortable abroad. The risk of culture shock was obviously a worry factor.

But Richard was very keen to find an entirely unrelated male to follow in the footsteps of Jayaram. It was the second week of December 2001 and there was very little time to select a suitable candidate. But as he was considering the problem in his hotel lounge the waiter brought him a hot lemon juice with amazing skill. He literally spun the tray on which the glass was placed upon a single index finger and walked proudly through the lobby with the drink smoothly rotating at shoulder height. And as he stooped down to deliver the drink the glass just happened to stop rotating exactly where Richard sat. It was a performance worthy of the Waldorf Astoria.

19 year old Shyam Dhakal was born in Bojphur, a small town in the centre of Nepal that had been taken by Maoist rebels a few years before forcing his family to leave their ancestral land and find refugee accommodation in the backstreets of Kathmandu. A few days after spinning the tray as a waiter in the Tibet Guest House, a well known tourist hotel in Thamel, he found himself walking up a mountainside near Nargakot on the edge of the Kathmandu valley carrying heavy rocks with outstretched arms above his head. It was the quickest way Richard could think of to test the lad’s strength, agility and discipline. And they must have made a strange sight to soldiers as they marched past armed military posts looking almost certainly like rebels in training. Indeed as they rested in the undergrowth after an hour of exhausting training, the pair was suddenly surrounded by a military patrol and seriously examined. But the explanation was accepted and they were able to return to ‘The Hotel at the End of the Universe’ where they were staying. Shyam passed his test with flying colours.

Returning to Kathmandu there was one more task to be completed before the team could get on with the season. The uniforms for Nepal’s first appearance at the Winter Olympic opening ceremony had to be designed and made. Richard had to pay for them and so he designed them himself. And Shyam modelled the finished product for the media and the NOC members who had to approve it.