Three times Olympian Niluka Karunaratne made history by becoming the first Sri Lankan athlete to be a applicant to the IOC Athletes’ Commission, which is empowered to represent all athletes by the International Olympic Committee.
Ex-Olympic athletes were selected by the Athletes’ Commission, and Sri Lankan badminton player Niluka Karunaratne was not elected, but received 308 votes. It was pointed out that Niluka Karunaratne’s participation in this vote was a great victory for Sri Lanka.
Niluka Karunaratne participated three Olympics in a row 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo while he was the most experienced shuttler having won most number of National titles as well as involved in this sport for more than 22 years.
He came to the world rank number 34 at one stage. After he retired from this sport he is working as active member of the NOC athletic commission.
In the meantime the athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 have elected Allyson Felix (USA, Athletics), Kim Bui (GER, Gymnastics), Jessica Fox (AUS, Canoe) and Marcus Daniell (NZL, Tennis) to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletic Commission (AC), for a term of eight years ending at the Olympic Games Brisbane 2032.
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