Bhupen Shrestha was only 19 when he won a gold medal during the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) in 2019. Shrestha, who was physically strong and technically agile, was seen as the future of taekwondo in Nepal.
There were valid reasons for people to be hopeful as he had won a gold medal in just two years of training. He was taekwondo’s golden boy and many had hoped he would make the country proud. But a little over four months ago, Shrestha decided to leave his gold medal behind and fly to Australia looking for a better future.
“I thought I’d get more exposure and better facilities after I won an international gold. But contrary to that, I didn’t even receive regular training. The (Nepal Taekwondo) Association didn’t treat me like an international athlete,” says Shrestha.
This is not just the case for Shrestha. Out of the 34 players of taekwondo in Nepal who won medals at the 13th South Asian Games in 2019 December, 13 have left the country for a better future abroad.
This shows how terrible the state of taekwondo in Nepal is as many promising players who have done well and won medals in international tournaments have left the country after not seeing a future in the sport.
Many say the situation is going to get worse as the officials associated with taekwondo in Nepal are currently in an internal tussle, which has caused uncertainty for those who have dedicated their lives to the sport.
What has not helped is the move by the National Sports Council (NSC) that scraped the Nepal Taekwondo Association and formed the Nepal Taekwondo Federation two weeks ago.
Bitterness started between the Olympic-recognised Nepal Taekwondo Association and NSC in September 2021. Nepal Taekwondo Association has not been happy with the NSC’s leadership when it formed another association called the Taekwondo Union in 2011. Things got worse between the two when the Nepal Taekwondo Association went ahead with its annual general meeting and elections in spite of the NSC asking it not to.
The association held a general meeting in Bhairahawa on September 30, 2021. Three days before that, the NSC had instructed to postpone the election because it did not approve the association’s revised constitution.
Nepal Taekwondo Association did not stop the general meeting saying that the election process had started after dissolving the working committee, and a new working committee was elected with Prakash Shamsher Rana as the president. But the NSC did not recognise the new working committee led by Rana.
This controversy flared up when competitions started to be conducted for the development of taekwondo in Nepal. Aiming at the upcoming Asian Games, the NSC directed the head coach Naveen Kumar Shrestha to start the training of the national team in October 2021. But the working committee led by Rana did not allow the chief coach Shrestha to train according to the NSC’s plan.
Instead, without coordinating with the head coach and trainer, they formed a national team preparation sub-committee under the leadership of Ram Giri and organised the 17th National Taekwondo Tournament on April 1 and 2, 2022. This meant the training of the national team of taekwondo in Nepal could not start.
The NSC then held a two-month closed camp from May 2022 for the Asian Games. In the camp, the NSC called players who won medals in the 2019 SAG and those who had performed in national-level taekwondo tournaments.
Asian Games was postponed to September 2023 and the closed camp was halted for the time being.
The 113th board meeting of the NSC held in July 2022 decided to form a committee under the leadership of its vice-chairperson Shiva Koirala. The aim of the committee was to solve issues related to sports associations.
Interestingly, Koirala is also the president of the National Taekwondo Union. This is the same union that was registered by the National Sports Council, which caused controversy in taekwondo in Nepal.
Nepal Taekwondo Association did not accept Koirala as the coordinator of the dispute resolution committee. According to the committee, the leadership of the Nepal Taekwondo Association did not come to the discussion despite being called for several times. The committee hence recommended the cancellation of the registration. On December 10, 2022, Sports Minister Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj endorsed the recommendation of the committee.
According to the instructions of the minister, the NOC revoked the registration of both the Nepal Taekwondo Association and the National Taekwondo Association on December 20, 2022. Then, it registered the Nepal Taekwondo Federation with Pradeep Joshi as the coordinator and Indraman Tuladhar as the general secretary.
Joshi is the former vice president of the Nepal Taekwondo Association and Tuladhar is the former general secretary of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA).
After cancelling their association and forming another one, the Rana-led association went to court and the Patan High Court gave an interim order. On January 4, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the NSC and others were called for discussion.
As this dispute in taekwondo in Nepal seems never-ending, the ones to feel the brunt are the players. This has resulted in many leaving Nepal and going abroad.
