Sri Lanka’s middle-distance runner, Tharushi Karunarathna did not win a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In fact, when she entered the fray in the Women’s 800m event big things were not expected of the teenager. As the youngest athlete to represent Sri Lanka her seventh place in Heat 4 of the Repechage round clocking a time of 2:06.66 was an experience by itself as she looks to the future four years hence when she would return to the greatest athletics show better steeled.
Away from the competition field, Tharushi won hearts at the Olympics for a different reason when she donated one of her Olympic track kits to be displayed at the International Olympic Committee Museaum in Lausanna, Switzerland.
At age 19, her kiddish deamanour evidenced by a Tom Boy smile, Tharushi, who emerged as her country’s newest athletic hope after Olympic silver medalist Susanthika Jayasinghe, handed over her Olympic track kit to Ms. Anne Jaccard, Senior Manager of Exhibits and Programs of the IOC Museum at a ceremony at the Games Village.
In recognition of this gesture, Tharushi will receive a certificate signed by the IOC President in recognition of her goodwill contribution.
Tharushi caught the spotlight when she became the first Sri Lankan since Susanthika Jayasinghe and Damayanthi Dharsha to clinch an Asian Games gold medal for Sri Lanka in 2022 in the women’s 800m final.
Tharushi was first spotted by her first coach, Pushpa Kumudini when she noticed her talent competing in the 100m and 200m events at her rural school’s Inter-House Meet. She went on to excel at circuit meets and she further developed attending A. Rathnayake Central in Walala on a sports scholarship and was a member of the 4 × 400 m relay team that won the All-Island School Games in a record time in 2018. Her first significant individual accomplishment was a bronze medal in the 800m at the Junior Nationals that year.
Tharushi won the All-Island School Games in 2020, at the age of 15, after setting new records in the 400m and 800m races in the Under-16 Girls category. She ran personal bests of 56.54 seconds in the 400m and 2 minutes 14.00 seconds in the 800m, both of which were faster than the winners in the older age groups. In 2019, she also set a new 800m record of 2:17.00 at the Sir John Tarbat Meet. In June 2023, she won gold in the 800m women’s race at the Asian Under 20 Junior Athletic Championships in Yecheon, South Korea. She also won silver in 400m and gold in 4 × 400 m mixed relay. In the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships, Tharushi recorded a time of 2:00:06 to win gold in the women’s 800m race and also set a new Asian record.