Deshabandu Kameradin Susanthika Jayasinghe is a Sri Lankan retired sprinter, who specialised in the 100 and 200 metres. She won the Olympic silver medal for the 200m event in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the second Sri Lankan to win an Olympic medal after Duncan White and the first Asian woman to win an Olympic or World Championship medal in a sprint event. She is also the only Asian athlete to have claimed an Olympic medal in sprint events. She is also the first and only Sri Lankan to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. Her silver medal achievement at the 2000 Sydney Olympics also stood as the only Olympic medal for a South Asian in athletics event for 21 years before Neeraj Chopra's gold medal achievement at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is fondly nicknamed as the Asian Black Mare. She has represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics on three occasions in 1996, 2000 and 2008. She is considered one of the most decorated sprinters in Sri Lanka. However, she is also a deemed as a controversial figure in Sri Lanka.
Meg Mallon is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1987 and won 18 LPGA Tour events, including four major championships, during her career. Mallon was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha is a retired Indian track and field athlete. She was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district,Kerala.She grew up in Payyoli. She has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 Asian gold medals and 7 Silver medals. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field". On 6 July 2022, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by former President Ram Nath Kovind. In December 2022, Usha has been elected president of the Indian Olympic Association unopposed. In Dec 2022, PT Usha has been appointed to the panel of Rajyasabha vice chairman to control the proceedings of the upper house during the absence of both Chairman and Deputy Chairman.She is the first nominated MP in history to become the Vice Chairperson of Rajyasabha
Shiny Kurisingal Wilson is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 metres for 14 years. Shiny Abraham Wilson represented India more than 75 times in international competition. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups. She is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the Asian competitions. She collected a total of 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.
Deshabandu Kobala Vithanage Damayanthi Dharsha-Kobalavithanage is a retired Sri Lankan athlete who competed in the 200 and 400 metres race events. She is the current Asian Games record holder in women's 200m event and current Asian Athletics Championships record holder in women's 400m event as well as national record holder in women's 400m. She is regarded as one of the greatest track and field athletes to have represented Sri Lanka at international level alongside her teammate Susanthika Jayasinghe. She is also regarded as the most successful Sri Lankan athlete at the Asian Games with a medal haul of four medals including three gold medals and became the first Sri Lankan female athlete to clinch three Asian Games gold medals. She represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics on three occasions in 1992, 2000 and 2004. She also represented Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games on four occasions in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 as well as at the South Asian Games on four occasions.
Chisato Fukushima is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for Japan. She is the Japanese record holder in the women's 100 metres and 200 metres.
Asami Chiba, or Tanno, is a Japanese sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She is the Japanese record holder in the event, and has also broken the national record in the 4×400 metres relay on multiple occasions. She is a member of Natureal Athlete Club in Japan and is coached by Kazuhisa Kawamoto.
Pinki Pramanik is an Indian track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres and 800 metres. Pramanik had success with the national 4×400 metres relay team, winning silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, gold at the 2006 Asian Games, and gold at the 2005 Asian Indoor Games. She won three gold medals at the 2006 South Asian Games, winning the 400 and 800 m events, as well as the relay.
Yuki Nakata is a Japanese track and field athlete who competes in the women's heptathlon. She represented Japan at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has competed twice at the World Championships in Athletics. She was the silver medallist at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships and the 2010 Asian Games and has won the heptathlon at the East Asian Games and the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. With straight wins from 2002 to 2010, she is a nine time national champion and her best of 5962 points for the heptathlon is the national record for the event.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Minori Hayakari (早狩実紀) is a Japanese track and field athlete who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. Her personal best of 9:33.93 minutes is the Japanese record and she has won straight Japanese national titles since the first event in 2005, taking her sixth title in 2011.
Manpreet Kaur is an Indian professional Olympic shot putter. Born in Ambala, her gold-medal winning performance of 18.86m at the 2017 Asian Grand Prix in Jinhua, China turned out to be a world-leading throw, taking her to the No. 1 spot in the rankings. She jointly holds the Indian national record 18.06m in Women's Shot Put with Abha Khatua. Kaur was qualified to represented India at Summer Olympics at Rio 2016 in shot put.
Nadeeka Lakmali Bambarenda Liyanage is a Sri Lankan javelin thrower. She is regarded one of the finest javelin throwers in Sri Lanka with global fame. She is also attached with the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force and current national record holder in women's javelin throw event.
Sachiko Masumi is a retired Japanese track and field athlete who competes in the long jump. She has a personal best of 6.65 metres for the long jump and occasionally competes in the triple jump, having a best of 13.34 m for that event. She was the Japanese Champion in the event in 2008 and 2009.
Dutee Chand is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition. She is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games. However, in the 2016 Summer Olympics, her 11.69 s in the preliminary round did not qualify her for the next round. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games. It was India's first medal in this event since 1998. In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.
Maho Hanaoka is a Japanese former track and field athlete who competed mainly in the long jump and triple jump. She is one of Japan's best female athletes in the horizontal jumps: she holds the Japanese records for the triple jump outdoors with 14.04 m and is also the record holder in both the long and triple jump indoors. Her long jump best of 6.82 m is a former Japanese record, second to Kumiko Ikeda.
Palakkeezhil Unnikrishnan Chitra is an Indian middle-distance runner who specialises in the 1500m distance. She won gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games and 2017 Asian Championships and a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games. She won gold medal at the 2019 Doha Asian Athletics Championships
Mami Ishino is a Japanese track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles. Her personal best for the event is 13.08 seconds.
Deepa Malik is an Indian athlete. She started her career at the age of 30. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games and won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in shot put. She also won gold in the F-53/54 Javelin event at the para athletic Grand Prix held in Dubai in 2018. She is currently the world number one in the F-53 category. She has won accolades for her participation in various adventure sports. She is associated with Himalayan Motorsports Association (H.M.A.) and Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (F.M.S.C.I.). She has undertaken an 8-day, 1,700-km drive in sub-zero temperatures which included a climb to 18,000 feet (5,500 m). It was – Raid De Himalaya. This journey covers many difficult paths including remote Himalayas, Leh, Shimla and Jammu.
Purnima Hembram is an Indian track and field athlete. She won bronze medals in the heptathlon at the 2015 and 2017 Asian Championships and placed fourth at the 2018 Asian Games.
