Eurosport - Mon, 11 May 17:31:00 2009
A teenage Nepali skier has been found in Paris via a campaign on social networking site Facebook two weeks after he disappeared from his team's base in the French Alps.
Uttam Rayamajhi, 17, vanished from the Nepal team ski base at Les Arcs without money or spare clothes on April 27.
"(He) has been discovered on the streets of Paris after members of the public recognised him from a Facebook campaign launched to find him," the team said.
"The teenager had been living rough after walking several hundred kilometres across France surviving through the kindness of local people. Eventually a stranger alerted him to the Facebook campaign and showed him the news on the Internet.
"Over 400 friends and well-wishers joined the (Facebook) campaign in less than a week."
Team manager Richard Morley told Reuters just after the boy's disappearance that Rayamajhi had been extremely distressed lately following the disintegration of the Nepal ski team in the wake of a funding row with the Nepal Olympic Committee.
"Uttam agreed to return to the team base when he learnt that his disappearance was jeopardising the funding and participation of team mate Shyam Dhakal at the (2010) Vancouver Winter Olympics," the team added.
Morley, a British businessman and former skier, launched the Nepal Alpine skiing team in 1997 at the request of the Himalayan country's then ruler King Birendra.
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Wow what a happy ending. Just shows the power of the internet especially when its put to good use and used in the right way by the right people. Well done to the 400 people looking for him !!!
We can all take something from this .
Wonderfull to read that the lad is safely back.
And amazing stuff that Facebook is so widely read now.
Let's hope that the Nepal team are treated fairly by the IOC. This funding stuff stinks - the athletes shouldn't be treated be like this. It's a scandal.
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