The hope of achieving a medal at the Olympics is a dream held by many, but only a few athletes from around the world can proudly represent their countries at the Olympic Games, every four years. Among them, only a handful of Sri Lankans have brought pride to Sri Lanka. Notably, there was Duncan White, who won a silver medal in the men’s 400m hurdles at the 1948 London Olympics, and Susanthika Jayasinghe, who won a bronze medal in the women’s 200m sprint at the 2000 Sydney Olympics (the gold medal from that race was stripped from Marion Jones due to her use of banned substances.
Apart from them, the only athlete to reach the semi-finals in any Olympic event until now is the athlete everyone in the country has been talking about in recent days, Aruna Darshana. His Olympic journey ended in the semi-finals after finishing fifth in the men’s 400m race. He completed the race in 44.
75 seconds, setting a personal best. However, due to a violation of the lane rule during the race, his time and position were erased from the official results. Nonetheless, Aruna Darshana has etched his name in the history of Sri Lankan sports as the only athlete to have reached the semi-finals in the Olympic Games after Duncan White and Susanthika Jayasinghe.
Coming from a village called Serunuwara Dehiwatta, which was once a border village during the terrorist war, to becoming the first Sri Lankan to reach the Olympic semi-finals after 24 years in Paris is a remarkable journey that spanned 25 year.