Palesha Govardhan has won a historic bronze medal for Nepal in the Paris Paralympics 2024. In the women's under Taekwondo 57 kg event under the K-44 category match held last night, Palesha defeated Serbia's Marija Michev by 15-8 points to bring a coveted bronze medal for herself and the country.
She has become the first Nepali athlete to win a medal in the Paralympics. In the first round match held yesterday, she had defeated Valeria Morales of Venezuela by 31-0 and made it to the quarterfinals. However, she lost to Brazil's Silvana Fernandezong 10-8 in the quarterfinals.
As she was defeated in the second round, she got another chance or repechage, in which she defeated host France's Sefi Carvajnelle by 2-1.
Palesha is also the first Nepali athlete to play in the Paralympics after passing the qualifying round.
Nepal has started participating in the Paralympics since the 2004 Athens Para-Olympics. Palesha started playing taekwondo since the age of 10 and joined the Para national team in 2016. Since then she has participated and won medals in various international competitions.
Palesha participated in the Paris Paralympics after passing the qualifying stage.
Palesha, who won the bronze medal, will now receive Rs 6.5 million from the government.
In the National Sports Development Regulations 2022, there is a provision to award 13 million rupees to gold medal winners in Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics, Paralympics, Special Olympics, and World Cup football, 9.7 million rupees to silver medal winners, and 6.5 million rupees to bronze medal winners under individual category.
