Entering his final Olympic Games, 44-year-old bricklayer Dachhiri Sherpa thinks he is going to finish last in cross-country skiing.
"I think there is a very big chance I will finish last. But the placing is not important if I can teach young people in Nepal about the Olympic spirit," Sherpa told AFP, who has never finished better than ninetieth overall in his two Olympic Games. "This spirit is in my heart."
Sherpa, who said this will be his final Olympic Games, worked as an assistant cook for tourist trekking expeditions and didn't begin skiing until the age of 33.
When Sherpa competed internationally for the first time, it was completely by accident, as the Nepal Olympic Committee asked him if he wanted to join the 2003 Asian Winter Games in Japan.
"I was interested and asked what running distance they wanted me to do," he said. "I was quite surprised when they said it was for skiing -- I had never done it before. They said 'do some training and you will be OK'."
At the 2006 Olympics, Sherpa became only the second Nepalese athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics.
"When I was young, I could never have imagined what would happen in my life," he said.
