Manama, Bahrain, June 6, 2024: Chandana Liyanage is hoping it will be more than a one-man band for Sri Lanka at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Liyanage is Chef de Mission of the Sri Lankan contingent which, at this moment, stands at exactly one athlete – the island’s badminton sensation Viren Nettasinghe, who has secured a direct qualification to Paris.
“Right now, we have just one athlete confirmed. I’m hoping that, through the International Olympic Committee’s Tripartite Commission Universality places, we will get a couple more,” explained Liyanage.
Liyanage and Kaushalya Danthanarayana are representing Sri Lanka at the Olympic Solidarity/OCA regional forum. Liyanage is the NOC Assistant Secretary General and Danthanarayana is Deputy Manager of Solidarity Relations.
The Sri Lankan NOC duo had arrived in Bahrain hoping the IOC could shed more light on the invitations they will hand out to the smaller NOCs in the world to send athletes to Paris.
But Olympic Solidarity representatives Olivier Niamkey and Edward Kensington said this would take a few more days. They could only reveal that 104 quotas are still to be allocated in 21 individual sports to 93 eligible NOCs of which 17 are in Asia.
“We are thrilled that we have an athlete who qualified on his own steam to Paris. Viren, who is only 20, is the youngest player so far in the badminton draw in the men’s singles competition and huge kudos to him. Now let’s hope we get a few more athletes,” says Liyanage.
Swimming and athletics should provide Universality places for Sri Lanka in the coming days.