TRUE GRIT: Cross-country skier Jayaram Khadka of Nepal finished the 10K
classical race in 82nd place, but his victory was in making it to the
Olympics.
| Miami Herald |
February
15, 2002
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| Title: Olympic Spirit: A Promise Kept, A Dream Realized | ||
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Nepalese skier achieves goal with adoptive father's help
MIDWAY, Utah -- Sometimes, the most intriguing stories at the Olympics have nothing to do with medal winners or figure-skating scandals. Sometimes, the best story of the day is Jayaram Khadka, the 82nd-place cross-country skier from Nepal who was rescued from destitution by an English computer tycoon whose life had been saved by the boy's father during a climbing accident in the Himalayas. As Khadka, 27, collapsed at the finish line of Thursday's 10-kilometer classical race, 18 minutes behind the gold medalist, he kissed the snow. He then got up and embraced Richard Morley, his 50-something adopted English father, who forever feels indebted to Khadka's late father and has gone through hell and high water to care for the young man. The crowd at Soldier Hollow had no idea it was witnessing the perfect Valentine's Day Olympic moment. This is a love story even Hollywood would be hard-pressed to duplicate. Their tale began 24,000 feet above sea level, on Anapurna, a mountain mass in the Himalayas. It was 1984 and Morley, a former Royal Navy officer and avid sportsman, was trekking the remote terrain when he had an accident and suffered a collapsed lung. The nearest phone was a seven-day walk away. A local policeman ran for help and returned in three days with a doctor. Morley, overwhelmed with emotion, offered the policeman a cash reward. The man refused. Instead, he asked that Morley care for his son, Jayaram, 10 at the time, should anything happen to him. The two men kept in touch, and in 1990, Morley learned that his friend had died of a heart attack. Morley, remembering his promise, stayed true to his word. He flew to Nepal and searched three months through mountain villages until he found the boy, working for pittance at a restaurant. 'I walked in this place, and this kid comes up to me and says, in Nepalese, `Are you the man who's coming to rescue me?' '' As it turns out, Khadka's father had shown his son a photo of Morley and told him that some day a Western man would come save him. Khadka recognized the lanky Englishman with the bushy eyebrows as soon as he walked in. ''My dad showed me that picture, and promised me that some day this man would help me, so when I saw him, I immediately knew who he was,'' Khadka said. ``Without Richard, I wouldn't be here today. I owe everything to him.'' The two sat and talked, and Morley invited Khadka to live with him at his estate, Clearwell Castle, in the Forest of Dean, where he ran a commune of about 20 people. The man and teenager then pricked their pinkies and made a blood vow to stick together. A seven-year legal battle followed. Morley wanted to legally adopt Khadka, but the British government wouldn't allow it because Khadka's passport said he was 18, too old to be adopted. He faced deportation. Morley was convinced the boy was younger and says medical tests proved he was no older than 16. But the battle continued. Morley's unusual household (''I like to call it a molecular family'') didn't help matters. ''The real problem is that the British government objected to the adoption because they didn't allow adoptions of black children by white people, and they considered him black,'' he said. ``But the public support was immense, and finally, in 1997, I was able to adopt him.'' Khadka enrolled in school to learn English and discovered the one thing he had in common with his new father was a love for snow-covered mountains. Morley took frequent ski vacations in the French alps, and Khadka took to the sport right away. The two began dreaming of the 2002 Olympics, and Morley bought a house in France to enable Khadka to train full time. He now owns three ski chalets in Les Arcs. The plan was for Khadka to enter as an alpine skier and compete in the downhill and slalom. But he tore knee ligaments in the spring of 2001, and was advised against alpine skiing for a while. So, he put on cross-country skis and changed disciplines. Though he has been living in England for 11 years, Khadka was determined to compete for his native country. Nobody ever had. To qualify for the Olympics, Khadka had to complete five sanctioned events. He competed in six Continental Cup races, with help from French national team coach Jean Pierre Boudet. Morley is the official coach of the one-man Nepal Olympic delegation. The unlikely father and son marched into the Opening Ceremony together, wearing traditional Nepalese garb. ''I am so proud of my son,'' Morley said. ``We have been through so much together, and to see him complete that race was very special. He'll never win a medal, but that's not the point. The point is to qualify.'' Khadka added: ``To be the first athlete for Nepal was my goal, and it didn't matter if I was first or last. It was my personal destiny to be here, and I am so proud of what I did.'' He said his mother, whom he visits in Nepal every year, was planning to watch Thursday's race on television. ``But, honestly, she won't know the difference between me being in the Olympics and being on Mars. This is completely alien to her.'' o o o Though nobody else in Thursday's field had a story quite as compelling as Khadka's, the other skiers who finished near the bottom of the pack were far from boring. There was 80th-place Philip Boit of Kenya, who four years ago was one of the most heartwarming stories of the Nagano Olympics. The former cross-country runner was sent to Finland by Nike as part of an experiment to see if Kenyan distance runners could master distance skiing. Boit finished 97th and fell into the arms of Norwegian Nordic ski legend Bjorn Daehlie at the finish line. 'When I got home, my wife asked me, `Who was that man waiting for you?' and I told her, 'His name is Daehlie, the champion of skiing. She said, `We will name our next child after him.' '' And they did. Nike ditched Boit after his poor performance in '98, but he pushed on with some help from the Kenyan Olympic federation and private donations. ''My goal was to improve my time, and I did it, so I'm very happy,'' Boit said. ``I wanted to show I am not a joke.'' And then there's last-place Isaac Meyoli of Cameroon, an architect who lives and trains in Milwaukee. He finished 19 minutes 33 seconds behind winner Johann Muehlegg of Spain, but he was ecstatic. He hopes through his participation in the Olympics to call attention to the AIDS epidemic in his country, and also to inspire other Africans and minorities to try winter sports. His first race, in 1998, was 43 kilometers. He was inspired by Boit's Olympic story. ''It was the most ridiculous and painful thing I ever did,'' Menyoli said. ``I skied for more than four hours. I had no technique, nothing. But I finished, and people were cheering, and that's all that matters.'' |