Challenging the land of the rising sun

Sri Lanka’s Chef-de-mission to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Gamini Jayasinghe is of the view that he is quite familiar and he is a person who has lived all his life around such situations. His adult life was spent as a prison senior official, ending up as the Commissioner of Prisons in the country.

Jayasinghe’s about the Lankan contingent and how they would approach to the challenge began in this manner. “This is a challenge with a difference owing to the prevailing pandemic situation; we would have to face various situations expected and unexpected. However, I think I would be able to cope with the situation. Even previously I have been to several Games in the same capacity – Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and I remember the South Asian Games experience where several hundred athletes took part made me a seasoned campaigner; I know what administration is all about, I know Olympic Values and Olympic Protocol. I also know how to mingle with the Olympic Solidarity personnel and how to tackle them. I am even more than familiar with most of the officials who will be there with the teams and this would be great help for our team.”

GoodSport inquired about the different circumstances during this Olympic Games. Generally, the respective contingent is free to mingle with the rest of the athletes and also stroll about during the free hours, but this time it is different.  All athletes including you will be living in an artificial bubble and spend your time and perform in an artificial situation?

The Olympic Chef-de-mission replied “Previously when we went on tour we were like free-birds. Now it’s more akin to my former occupation; it’s like being in jail. During the bubble period there are no short cuts and everyone has to adhere to a very strict regime – we always have to wear masks and are not allowed to hang about friends. That means I have a bigger responsibility to keep the flock out of situations.

“In the bright-side of it, all these years the contingent faced various restrictions. However, this year we have a lot of sponsors to be commercial partners of the event. For that we must the NOC SL President Suresh Subramaniam who left no stones unturned to see that the contingent was not in want. The sponsorship package counted to more than Rs. 50 million. In this case the athletes and the officials stand to be counted.”

The next question to Gamini Jayasinghe was that out of the nine athletes, six will be travelling to the Games from overseas and there would be hardly any time to converge and plan your proper strategy?

He said “I can foresee any problems. Generally, we sit together and discuss our strategy as a team on arrival. This happens before every event and after. This time the only difference will be we will be preparing the athletes individually. I think here we will have more control over the situation. For instance, take badminton. There we would Niluka, coach and the manager and discuss how well the Olympic Committee be of assistance to them in every way”.

 

We asked what about the media—how would we be assisting them?  “For the first time of the Olympic History the NOC SL will be fully sponsoring the Lankan Media. Why would be we of assistance to the media? We would be operating very closely with the nine media personnel who would be making the tour. Even this tour was borne through the sponsorship package thanks to the NOC SL President.

“At the same time, I will make this the opportunity to air my opinion about some misinformation that went viral. Just prior to the final phase, the NOC SL President saw to those 58 persons whom the authorities thought that stood any chance of making it to Japan be inoculated for Covid-19. But, ironically the list was leaked out to the media and the story of two athletes and 58 officials going on the tour made big news.”

The list of officials besides the chef-de-mission who would be making tour would be –

1 Niluka Karunaratne Badminton Men’s Singles Dinuka Karunaratne - Training partner cum Coach

2 Tehani Egodawela Shooting 10m Air Rifle – Women Pradeep Edirisinghe - Manager

3 Matthew Abeysinghe Swimming 100m Free style – Men Manoj Abeysinghe - Coach

4 Aniqah Gaffoor Swimming 100m Butterfly – Women

5 Milka Gehani Gymnastics Artistic Gymnastics R.A. Kapila Jeewantha – Team Manager Ranjana Tharanga - Coach

6 Mathilda Karlsson Equestrian Jumping Individual Suranjith Premadasa – Team Manager Nikolay Borisov Nikolov - Groom Manfred Von Allwoerden - Horse Assistant Personnel Cedric Jaky Lilian Marie - Veterinarian Aenne Mueller - Training pass

7 Chamara Dharamawardhana Judo 73 kg – Men Amal Ratnayake - Coach

8 Yupun Abeykoon Athletics 100m – Men Claudio Licciardello - Coach

9 W.K.L.A. Nimali Athletics 800m – Women Sujith Abeysekara - Coach

Admin officials:

Chef de Mission – Mr. Gamini Jayasinghe

Press Attaché – Wg. Cdr. (rtd) Chandana Liyanage

Covid-19 Liaison Officer – Dr. Himan de Silva

Administrative Personnel - Ms. Hansika Wijayagunasekara