The Netball Coach Who Ran At The Olympics

Did you know that it was only in Seoul 1988, which is 40 years after the first Ceylon team took part in the London Olympics, that the Sri Lankan contingent saw female participants qualifying for the Olympics?

One name was Dipika Chanmugam who was the first female swimmer for Sri Lanka (her cousin Julian Bolling was also part of that same team) and the other was Thilaka Jinadasa, the first female track and field athlete.

Born on a day like this in 1963, she started her sporting journey at CMS Kotte (Sri Jayawardenapura Maha Vidyalaya). She showed her colours as a schoolgirl not just on the track but in Netball as well as in 1987, she broke the national record in 100m Hurdles at the South Asian Games.

The First Sportswoman to be a 'Deshabandu'

Her efforts at SAG made her the first female athlete to represent Sri Lanka at the Olympics in 1988. Although she was one of two women in the contingent, she was the first to compete and that same year, she was awarded the title of 'Deshabandu' as the first sportswoman.

Not only was she an athlete but as a dual international sportswoman having succeeded in Netball as well, with a special achievement of being the team vice captain in the 1997 side for their second title Asian Netball Championship. When she took up coaching in Netball and went on to add two more Asian Netball titles as coach!

She was very instrumental in the development of many Netball players with a key name being Tharjini Sivalingam who was introduced to her by former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa at the time, and also had stints with the Maldives and Brunei National teams. At present, she also heads the development in sports at Gateway College.

Sportswomen of her calibre to excel in not just one but two sports is very rare and she is a living example of sporting excellence. Here's to wishing Thilaka madam on her 62nd birthday today!