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.
Deshabandu Robosingho Arachchilage Don Sugath Thilakaratne, commonly as Sugath Thilakaratne, is a Sri Lankan retired sprinter and a politician. Specialized in the 400 metres, Thilakaratne is the current record holder for 400m event at Asian Athletics Championships.
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.
Sri Lanka competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008.The Sri Lankan olympic committee confirmed 4 males and three females have been selected to compete in 5 sports. Later Chinthana Vidanage received a tripartite commission invitation to participate in weightlifting. This now brings the total count to 8 athletes competing in 6 sports.
Shehan Abeyptiya is a Sri Lankan male athlete who won 3 gold medals at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games.
Sri Lanka participated at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at London marked its sixteenth appearance in the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics, having missed only the 1976 Games. The delegation consisted of seven competitors: two athletics competitors, two badminton players one shooter and two short-distance swimmers. Cooray, Samarakoon and Karunaratne qualified for the Games by meeting their respective qualifying standards; the remainder of the team entered through wildcard or quota places. Karunarante was the flag bearer for the opening and closing ceremonies.
The 2012 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 15th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association. It took place from 9 to 12 June at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka – the same venue hosted the 2002 Asian Athletics Championships. Thirty-four nations took part in the event and over five hundred athletes participated. A total of 44 events were contested, with the events being evenly split between the genders.
The 2013 Asian Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the biennial athletics competition between Asian nations. It was held at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, India between 3–7 July. Around 522 athletes from 42 nations competed at the event. It was the first time since 1989 that India had hosted the championships.
Sri Lanka will compete at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. A team of 8 athletes was announced to represent the country in the event. The men's 4x400 relay team qualified for the event by meeting the qualification time and winning the bronze medal at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India. Both Lakmali and Merill qualified for the event by breaking the national record in their respective events.
Matthew Duncan Abeysinghe is a competitive swimmer who has represented Sri Lanka at numerous international competitions, including the 2016 and 2020 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo respectively.
Uggal Dena Pathirannehelage Pradeep Sanjaya is a Paralympian track and field athlete from Sri Lanka competing mainly in T46 sprint events. In 2012, in London he became the first Sri Lankan competitor to win a Paralympic medal, taking bronze in the men's 400 metres (T46) race.
Nimali Waliwarsha Konda Liyanarachchi is a Sri Lankan 800 m runner and current national record holder in women's 1500m event. She is also believed to be the first Sri Lankan woman to have competed in steeplechase events. She became the first Sri Lankan woman to complete the distance of 3000 metres in steeplechase event under 11 minutes. She won the best athlete award twice at the Presidential award ceremonies by the Sports Ministry including the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year in 2015. She is currently attached to Sri Lanka Air Force.
Sri Lanka participated at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 6 October to 18 October 2018.
Dimuth Akalanka Peiris also known as Akalanka Peiris is a Sri Lankan swimmer and a national record holder in swimming. Known for his outstanding international performances, he is a Youth Olympian., and a Commonwealth Games finalist. He has represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games and World Aquatics Championships. Akalanka is ranked among the top 25 swimmers globally, and he continues to make significant contributions to Sri Lankan swimming.
Sri Lanka competed at the 2019 World Championships in Athletics in Doha, Qatar, from 27 September to 6 October 2019. Hiruni Kesara Wijayaratne was the only athlete representing Sri Lanka, in the women's marathon event.
Sri Lanka competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the nation's eighteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, with the exception of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Seven of the nation's previous Olympic appearances were under the name Ceylon.
Sri Lanka is scheduled to compete at the 2022 World Championships in Athletics in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15−24, 2022.
Nilani Ratnayake also spelt as Nilani Rathnayake or Nilani Rathnayaka is a Sri Lankan steeplechaser. She is the first and only Sri Lankan female steeplechase runner ever in history to have completed running the 3000 meters steeplechase in less than under 10 minutes. She is currently attached with the Sri Lanka Army.
During the FINA World Aquatics Championships, athletes whose governing body has been suspended are still allowed to compete under the FINA flag with the "country" designation as "Suspended Member Federation". In 2015, the Sri Lankan federation was suspended, but they competed as independent athletes under the FINA code. Since 2017, Kuwait, Kenya, and the Philippines have sent participants to the Aquatics Championships under the SMF code.
From 2015 to 2022 when the World Aquatics was still known as FINA, neutral athletes have competed under the designation Independent FINA Athlete (IFA) either due to their national federation's suspension of their governing body or as refugees.
