The Olympian dream

On July 23, the Olympics will kick off in Tokyo. Sri Lanka is sending a 9 member delegation to represent the country. They include Mathilda Karlsson, the first Sri Lankan showjumper to qualify for the Olympics, Milka Gehani de Silva who is contesting in artistic gymnastics (also a first for Sri Lanka), Chamara Dharmawardana, making his second Olympics appearance for the sport of judo, Tehani Egodawela who is competing in a women’s air rifle event, Niluka Karunaratne for badminton, Yupun Abeykoon for the men’s 100 metre event, Nimali Liyanaarachchi for the 800 metre sprint event, and swimmers Aniqah Gaffoor and Matthew Abeysinghe.?

Initially, long distance runner Nilani Ratnayake was in the running to compete for the 3000 metre steeplechase event, but she was replaced by Nimali Liyanaraachchi at the last minute.?

Curious, I decided to do some more digging about why. What I found highlighted how COVID-19 has impacted athletics in countries like Sri Lanka, but also some stories that highlighted deeper issues to Sri Lanka and sports.?

Nilani Ratnayake was among the first to qualify for the Olympics. By December 2020, she was ranked 35th in the world, well within the requirements to secure a spot. But the lack of competitions available to her led to her dropping lower on the list. The spread of COVID-19 meant that local meets were ‘close to nonexistent’ and athletes were also unable to travel overseas to participate due to travel restrictions. By June 29 this year, Ratnayake had dropped to 46 - one position below that needed for her to directly qualify for the Games. At the last minute, the Sri Lanka Athletics Association decided to send a 10 member team to the Interstate Athletics Meet in Patiala, India. Ratnayake still had a chance based on running time, needing to clock in under 9 minutes and 30 seconds to qualify. At the meet in India though, she clocked in at 10:12.02 seconds (in third place).?

The President of the National Olympics Committee of Sri Lanka pointed out that there almost wasn’t a delegation going to Tokyo at all, adding that the Athletics Association of Sri Lanka waited until the last minute despite qualifying rounds taking place since the beginning of the year. Two leading national javelin throwers, Sumedha Ranasinghe and Waruna Lakshan, were also ranked among the world’s top 100 athletes in their sport by December 2020, but like in Nilani’s case their rankings had already fallen by June 2021, with both athletes only able to participate in local meets. Only Ranasinghe was given the opportunity to attend the Interstate Athletics Meet in Patiala, where he threw his seasonal best of 77.28 metres - still not enough to earn him a spot in the Olympic delegation.?

Even those who made it to the Indian meet had a rude shock upon returning to the country. At least one from the Olympic delegation and one who was hoping to participate in the World Junior Athletics Championship were sent to Akuressa upon arrival in Sri Lanka, denying them the chance to train at the Sugathadasa stadium as promised.

Source.

Red tape and red lists

Those in the Olympic delegation faced numerous hurdles in order to receive a chance to compete. Swimmer Matthew Abeysinghe, who was training in the US, was affected when pools were?closed?due to COVID-19, as only those swimming for the US were allowed to continue their training. Later on, he was allowed to train in a university pool, but isolated from others.?

Judoka Chamara Dharmawardana had to fly to Hungary to qualify for the Olympics. Since there’s no embassy in Sri Lanka, his passport was sent to Delhi two months before the qualifiers. With Delhi on lockdown, there was no staff available to stamp his passport until the very last minute. The flight that would have carried his passport to Colombo was also cancelled at the last minute, leading to his passport being delivered one day late - by which time the weighing process for qualifying had already been completed. Dharmawardana got his chance to compete due to a ‘wildcard’ entry.

For the Sri Lankan team, COVID-19 has also made the trip to Tokyo more difficult. Normally, the delegation would transit in Singapore - except Sri Lanka is on many countries’ red lists due to the?increasing number of COVID-19 cases?in the country. So instead, the delegation is flying in the?opposite direction?(to Doha) first, with a back-up flight booked on Sri Lankan airlines. Things could be worse - the Fiji team is?flying in?on a cargo plane, and Jamaican sprinter Shelly Ann-Fraser Price will have to travel?over 8000 miles?to get to Tokyo. The delegation also has to go into a?7 day bio-bubble with daily PCR tests, and take a further rapid antigen test upon arrival in Tokyo. If any one of the delegation tests positive, the entire group will have to go into quarantine. For the record,?only?athletes from Afghanistan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were required to take the daily PCR tests prior to departure due to the rapidly spreading Delta variant - but it’s telling that the same restrictions don’t seem to apply to countries like the?UK?(which is planning to relax restrictions, including on face coverings and social distancing on 19 July despite the Delta variant spreading in the country). It’s telling that South Asia has to jump through so many more hoops to compete on the world stage.?

Trouble in Tokyo

The 2020 Olympics Games themselves have been mired in controversy from the beginning. First, a planned stadium designed by Zaha Hadid was?scrapped?due to public anger about the USD 2 billion cost. (On a side note,?this?IPS paper talks about the costs of attempting to host the Olympics, from building infrastructure like stadiums and hotels to operational costs for the ceremonies, security costs and the costs of bidding itself - all told, it can add up to billions of dollars). Next, Japan’s Olympic committee was subject to a?probe, with French magistrates investigating payments to the value of USD 2.3 million made before and after Tokyo’s nomination. While Japan protested its innocence, head of the Japanese Olympic committee Tsunekazu Takeda?stepped down?from his role. Then, in March 2020, the Olympics was postponed for the first time in history due to COVID-19. In January, public support for the event plunged as a state of emergency was declared in Tokyo due to a spike in cases. Yet, the organisers including the International Olympics Committee insisted that the event go ahead. Then the Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori had to?resign, after his comments that women ‘talk too much in meetings’ sparked a?firestorm?of criticism. He was replaced by seven time Olympian and Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto, one of just two women in Japan’s Cabinet. Weeks after she took up the post, the creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies resigned after he had made a suggestion for a plus-sized comedian to appear dressed as a pig during the ceremonies. (Charming and indicative of the ingrained sexism in sport, which can also be seen in the debates around the?inclusion?of?transgender athletes?this Olympics).?And that was?before?the “foreigners only” and “Japanese only” elevator signs which caused people to tweet that the virus doesn’t discriminate based on nationality.?

Sri Lanka and the Olympics

The problems plaguing Sri Lankan athletics have long pre-dated COVID-19. For instance, the size of the Sri Lankan Olympics delegations have themselves long been a subject of controversy in mainstream media (with the charge being that the number of accompanying officials regularly outstrips the athletes). This year, the National Olympics Committee had to?address?misinformation shared on social media about the size of the delegation (the final delegation consists of?9 athletes and 17 officials.) The total cost,?Rs. 22 million, is being?split?between the National Olympics Committee and the Ministry of Sports, and includes airfare and accommodation for 6 journalists and VIP accommodation, but also provision for the transportation of horses and other equipment for athletes. While the scrutiny on cost and the size of delegation is warranted (it is the taxpayer’s money, after all) some of it is a little unfair - like this bizarre article in the?Sunday Times?which appears to be trying to legislate which athletes are deserving of the ‘luxury’ of having their coaches present and comparing the athletes to one another. More ominously, the article does?note?that more officials from the Ministry of Sports and the National Olympics Committee will be flying to Tokyo after the official delegation leaves.??

Sri Lanka has won just two medals in the Olympics thus far -?two silver medals, 52 years apart. The first was won by Duncan White in 1948 for the?400 metre hurdles, and the second by Susanthika Jayasinghe, for the?200 metre event?at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Incidentally, Sri Lanka is also?remembered?for sportsmanship in losing - specifically, during the 1964 games in Tokyo, when Ranatunga Karunananda (known as Karu) ran in the 10,000 metre event and doggedly completed the race, despite being lapped multiple times.

I recall watching the Sydney games, and particularly the long awaited 200 metre event - watching with disbelief as Susanthika crossed the line in third place - and weeks later, the news that Marion Jones, the clear favourite for gold, had possibly taken performance-enhancing drugs. (Jones?claims?her coach told her it was flaxseed oil at the time - others say she has never admitted to the full extent of her drug use. On a side note, this year the rules around drug tests and drug use are being?debated?after US athlete Sha'Carrie Richardson tested positive for marijuana - which is?not known to be performance-enhancing, but is nevertheless on the Olympic's list of banned substances.)

Briefly, Susanthika, the daughter of a rubber tapper who?often?raced barefoot as a child, was a national hero. But while in Sydney, Susanthika?revealed?that then Sports Minister S B Dissanayake had sexually harassed her, and then tried to ruin her career after she rejected his advances (in 1997 and 1998, she was?investigated?for use of the banned steroid nandrolone and briefly barred from the national team before being eventually cleared by the International Amateur Athletic Federation in 1999). She also?raced?with a yellow ribbon around her wrist, in support of a movement opposing election rigging, which earned her a rebuke from the Prime Minister. Susanthika’s allegations led to a flood of press and controversy (for instance, when she returned to Sri Lanka, she?denied?that she had named Dissanayake. It’s not hard to understand why she might have done this - in the most recent spate of?#MeToo?allegations from Sri Lanka’s newsrooms, most of the perpetrators were unnamed, yet those who went public were subject to threats of litigation or pressured into deleting their stories nevertheless). But in the public eye, she was seen as an unreliable narrator. Her attempts to secure a sports administrative position were?rebuffed, and her attempted entry into politics was unsuccessful. Susanthika’s story illustrates that even those who go on to excel in their field are not given the chance to pass on their knowledge (I’ve written about this before in the field of?women’s cricket).?

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