Kathmandu, Nepal, October 6, 2021: Former taekwondo star Deepak Bista has been elected President of the Nepal Olympians Association.
Bista, 45, represented Nepal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where he was also the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony. He was chosen to lead a 15-strong committee of the Nepal Olympians Association which has been revived after a break of four years.
The election was attended by the President of the Nepal Olympic Committee, Hon. Jeevan Ram Shrestha, who inaugurated the event by lighting a lantern. In his address, President Shrestha called for future Olympic campaigns to be jointly promoted by the NOC and the Olympians Association.
Bista won a bronze medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and holds the record for the highest number of gold medals at the South Asian Games – four golds - tied with swimmer Gaurika Singh. He will lead a committee which includes Vice Presidents Prabin Tuladhar and Ms. Sangina Baidya and General Secretary Rajendra Bhandari.
The Nepal Olympians Association became inactive in 2017 following the death of its President, weightlifter Sunil Lal Joshi, who took part in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
In August, the Nepal Olympic Committee called for athletes who had participated at both the Summer and Winter Olympics to send in their applications in a bid to revive the body.
Nepal has competed in 14 Olympic Games - 92 Olympians in total since first taking part in 1964 Tokyo - and four Winter Olympics, each represented by one athlete, to date, but has yet to win an Olympic medal.
