Six athletes get IOC funding for Tokyo 2021 – Two changes

By www.ceylonathletics.com | November 17, 2020 | English, Latest News, Top Stories

Two track and field athletes, VidushaLakshani and Gayanthika Abeyrathne, have been removed from the Sri Lanka’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) Solidarity Scholarship recipients list targeting the 2021 Olympic Games, after a progress review.

Both athletes received USD 670 per month from 2016 post Rio Olympic era till 2020, but lately both Sri Lanka Athletics (SLA) and National Olympic Committee (NOCSL) had agreed that their lack of progress does not entitle them to further continuance of the scholarship.

“IOC asked whether we are continuing with same list of athletes following postponement of Tokyo2020 Olympics to 2021, before extending the Solidarity Scholarship for a year. They also asked for a progress review of the scholarship recipients. Sadly, the performances of both these athletes (Vidusha and Gayanthika) weren’t up to expectation. The target of this scholarship was to ensure they got at least close to Olympic qualification, but it has not been the case ” said Senior SLA official.

Apart from that, both SLA and NOCSL too confirmed they faced problems with their financial settlements, since the scholarship was disbursed by way of reimbursement of bills submitted by the athletes.

Meanwhile, SLA has nominated two other athletes – 3000m steeple chase runner Nilani Rathnayake(country’s top performer at the moment and only one within Olympic qualification range), and Javelin thrower Sumedha Ranasinghe (who represented SL at the 2016 Rio Olympic and next closest to Olympic qualification) – for the scholarship.

However, NOC has agreed to Nilani Rathnayake’s selection but given the other scholarship to 30 year old wrestler Chamara Perera. Perera impressed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games but didn’t make the team in 2018, and could only manage Silver in the most recent South Asian Games.

“We gave two slots for athletics for three years and their poor progress means we should at least give another sport a chance. Wrestler Chamara is on top of his game. He has performed well and we expect to send him for training to Mongolia before the Olympics, “said NOCSL Secretary Maxwell de Silva in response.

“We were not happy about the decision, but NOCSL promised that they will arrange another scholarship opportunity for Sumedha, which we are now waiting for,” said the SLA official.

Along with these changes, IOC (through NOCSL) sponsors six athletes targeting the 2021 Olympic Games.

Poor performance by Athletics Scholars

Over the last decade it has been a common factor that athletes who receive the IOC Solidarity Scholarship have not shown any improvement over the years, but in contrast their performance goes down and they fail to at least achieve Olympic qualification. Australian based pole vaulter Muditha Jayasekara received the said scholarship for a while, but since he did not even represent the country that scholarship was given to 400m runner Chandrika Subashini Rasnayake targeting the 2016 Olympics, but her performance went down after 2014, while Gayanthika and Vidusha did not impress by 2020, and none of them got even close to the Olympic qualification mark.

“Every time our athletes receive something, they don’t perform. This sets a bad precedent for the future, where deserving athletes may lose out from further scholarship opportunities, as athletes who receive something doesn’t perform,” the SLA official lamented.

IOC Increases Funding

Meanwhile, IOC has increased the budget of Olympic Solidarity (OS) by 16 per cent for the 2021 to 2024 period (total $590 million) during an Executive Board meeting.

The Olympic Solidarity budget allocated to athlete support programmes has also been increased by 25 per cent for the next quadrennial.

In addition, the budget allocated for national activities has been increased to the equivalent of $500,000 per National Olympic Committee (NOC), and continent-specific programme budgets have been increased by 24 per cent.

Olympic Solidarity had already increased funding to NOCs following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympics Games, with the budget for the IOC subsidies programme increased by $10.3 million.

Sri Lanka IOC Solidarity scholarship recipients