‘Sri Lanka Olympian’ initiated

– Olympians to be felicitated on 24 July

– Expect to be member of World Olympian Association

After six years in the making, former Sri Lankan Olympians finally came up with their novel association, ‘Sri Lanka Olympian’ yesterday at the NOC, which is headed by former Olympian hurdler Sriyani Kulawansa.

The Association is expected to be the 149th member of the World Olympian Association which now has 148 member countries around the world. As per Kulawansa Sri Lanka has 97 Olympians at the moment who have represented Sri Lanka since the 1948 Olympic Games and out of those 29 have passed away while about 18 live overseas.

One of the prime goals of the said Association will be the welfare of the Olympians, while they are planning to be a force driving Sri Lanka sports forward through educating the younger generation about how to become a future Olympian.

“Olympians are sportsmen and women who were on top of their respective sport in the country and they deserve to be recognized, but at the moment people don’t even know them. Even finding their whereabouts is hard whereas it should not be the case. We will change all of that through this Association,” said Kulawansa.

“It’s been a long and hard journey to reach this stage. We did not have a place to conduct our meetings at AASL – may be near the swimming pool – and we even met the President and conveyed our ideas for the benefit of the President,” asserted Kulawansa.

Following their meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, he has agreed to felicitate the Olympians of the country on 24 July at President’s House.

“We have many goals. When it comes to Olympians we have to ensure a monthly income for them similar to a pension, an insurance scheme as well as their welfare. Also we are planning to conduct workshops around the country to divulge our vast knowledge to the next generation, fight against doping and to build future Olympians of the country,” quipped Kulawansa.

Kulawansa stated that since they have the cream of Sri Lankan athletes since 1948, they will be the most powerful Sports Association in the country.

Office Bearers:

President: Sriyani Kulawansa; Secretary: Damayanthi Dharsha; Vice President: Sugath Thilakarathne; Treasurer: Anurudda Ratnayake.

Committee Members: Mahesh Perera, Harijan Ratnayake, Julian Bolling, Ruvini Abeymanne.

Patron – Susanthika Jayasinghe