"Olympic dream" grown from Aid Mission

Manita suffered from the pain of losing the Olympics at the last minute. However, she did not give up. She continued her efforts for four years. She added more energy to training. As a result, she secured a ticket to the Paris Olympics. This year too, his trip to Paris was confirmed only two weeks ago. She is selected from continental quota.

With the end of the selection competition of the International Judo Federation for the Paris Roadmap, Manita confirmed her place in the Olympics based on the quota. He is also an Olympic scholarship athlete. As a result, Manita got the opportunity to play in many international competitions that are on the Olympic roadmap. She played in Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Kyrgyzstan. She understood that she was able to play in the Olympics based on her high performance in that competition.

372 judo athletes will compete for 15 gold medals at the Paris Olympics. There are 186 players equally on the women's and men's sides. They will compete in 7 weight groups and one mixed team. Among them, Manita who competes in women's under 57 kg weight group (lightweight) is one. There are 27 players competing in this weight. As the 'draw' schedule has not come, his initial opponent has not been decided.

Manita is a player undergoing special training for national team preparation under Mission-2026. Due to this, his preparation is continuous. Now Olympic Chataro is busy training morning and evening. Now only two/four days are left for preparation. The Nepali Olympic team is scheduled to go to Paris next Monday.

Her coach Devu Thapa said that the preparations are satisfactory and the goal is to win the bout. Devu said, "This year, we hope to win the bout from Manita. Preparations are going well. As there is little time, we are moving forward by fixing what is lacking and weak. Devu himself is also an Olympian. She played in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was Phupulhamu Khatri's coach in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

So Devu has experience both playing and playing in the Olympics. That experience will be a bonus for Manita. Devu says, "I had a goal of playing Fupulhamu full-time in Rio, and I succeeded. This year, I have set a goal to win Manita at least one bout. Chandra Dangol is also in Devu's training team. Both are pouring their techniques into Manita's abilities.

Fupulhamu broke the history of Nepalese judo players not being able to play the full time in the Olympics. Despite losing her match against Cuba's Marisette Spinosa, Fupu lasted the full four minutes. Now Nepali Judo is aiming to break that and win the bout from Manita. Manita, who has been involved in judo since her childhood, has gained experience in many international competitions by the age of 25. He also has experience of winning medals from cadet, junior to senior international competitions.

Because of that experience, Manita is not afraid of the big challenge that will come in the Olympics. She says, 'Olympics is a big stage of sports. World star players come one by one. All players who play there are cheated. I was also cheated. I am completing it. I am ready to challenge no matter what the opponent is.'

For Nepalese athletes, winning an Olympic medal in the current situation is synonymous with the proverb 'Akashko fal angy tari mer'. So Manita's goal is to make Olympic participation memorable. She says, 'I am thinking of making my 15-year judo career special. Accordingly, I have strengthened myself. At least the goal is to win the bout.' In the language of judo, Manita excels in techniques such as uchi-mata, kouchigake, seoi-nage. Due to which she can dominate any opponent.

Manita was born in Panchthar Hangam. Now she lives in Kathmandu Kapan. He remembers coming to Kathmandu at the age of eight. After that, while staying in the Prisoner's Aid Mission (PAM), she took a step into judo. From 2009 she started playing judo. Suryanarayan Shrestha was the guru who taught Judo in Pam. He was also an influential player of his time.

Suryanarayan, who was a volunteer coach at Pam, always encouraged his young players to 'become Olympic athletes'. Manita was among the same Kalila children. Manita also thought, 'Why does Guru always say Olympics? Sometimes he got angry. We don't know that. Only later did I understand the importance of the Olympics.'

Suryanarayan was the happiest when Manita got to play in the Olympics. Even though he didn't get to play in the Olympics, he made his students dream of the Olympics at a young age. Which Manita is accomplishing. Pam has produced many national level judo players. Manita says, "I feel proud to be able to fulfill Surya Guru's dream. He would train us in any situation, even if we had to walk on a stilt after an accident. His hard work also encouraged me.'

Manita's medal journey

The Triyog Judo Championship held in Kathmandu in 2011 is the first tournament Manita played. She won gold in it. In the same year, after finishing third in the Peace South Asian Cadet Judo Championship, he started winning medals internationally. Manita, who has participated in more than two dozen international competitions, has won silver medals in two South Asian Games (12th and 13th SAG) and has experience of playing in two Asian Games (Jakarta and Hangzhou).

He won bronze in two editions of Asian Junior and Cadet Judo Championship in Kyrgyzstan and gold in Thailand North University Championship is also special for Nepali Judo. Joining the departmental team Nepal Police Club for the past 5 years, Manita is also a player who has reigned supreme in her weight group from seventh to ninth national games.

Judo's Olympic journey Since Seoul

Manita is the sixth athlete to participate in judo in the Olympics. Ganga Bahadur Dangol and Rishiram Pradhan of Judo participated for the first time in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. After that, Devu Thapa participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phupulhamu Khatri in the 2016 Rio Olympics and Sonia Bhatt in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.