The youngest athlete at this year’s 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro is a survivor of the earthquake which hit Nepal in April last year. Gaurika Singh, 13, has already been the centre of a diplomatic wrangle when she was informed that the Head Coach of Barnet Copthall Swimming Club, Rhys Gormley couldn't not accompany her for the games. Instead she was trained over the phone by a coach from Nepal.
The teen who moved to England aged two retains her Nepalese citizenship as her parents, mother Garima and father, Paras, a consultant urologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, would like to move back eventually. The Nepalese Swimming Federation insisted she be accompanied to the games by a coach she has never met.
In 2015 she was playing table tennis along with her mother and brother on the fifth floor of a building in Katmandu when the earthquake hit leaving 9000 dead. She was among the lucky ones to survive and flew back to UK a month later.
She began her training around five years back with the Copthall swimming club and soon realised she was among the country’s fastest swimmers. Gaurika’s olympic glory lasted exactly one minute and 8.45 seconds as he came 32rd out of 34 competitors attempting to qualify for the 100metres backstroke. Despite this she will still have further opportunities because even if she was competing in the next four Olympics, she would still be only 29.
