Polio-stricken parents nurture Ushan’s Olympic dream
Ushan Thiwanka Perera was the most outstanding athlete at the 2021 Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Texas
Sri Lanka’s Olympic hope in the high jump event, Ushan Thiwanka Perera, was not even born when Cuban great Javier Sotomayer, the 1992 Olympic champion, soared to great heights in the 1990s. He was a two-year-old kid when American athlete Charles Austin won the men’s high jump gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Nonetheless, the feats of these two athletes seem to have greatly impacted the life of a starry-eyed youngster from Sri Lanka who is on the brink of bringing Olympic glory in Tokyo.
World record holder in the men’s high jump Sotomayer (2.45 metres) is his role model while as destiny would have it, Ushan has come under the wing of Austin’s coach Rock Light after getting a scholarship at Texas A&M University Commerce last August. A six-footer, 23-year-old Ushan has lived up to his potential by raising the bar to 2.30m with his final jump at the 2021 Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Texas last weekend.
It was a renewal of his high jump record of 2.28m which he broke in March during the 2021 Texas Relays Championships eclipsing former Sri Lanka champion Manjula Kumara’s long standing record. More significantly, he has edged closer to the Olympic qualification criteria of 2.33m with a performance that is ranked as the third best outdoor performance of the year.
In February, he also broke the Sri Lanka record in indoor high jump clearing 2.25m during the Lone Star Conference 2021 event in Texas. The good news is that he is yet to reach his peak this season.
“I have not reached my peak yet. I am waiting for the (American Universities) Nationals. I am in good condition. I am ready for the Nationals,” declared Ushan in an interview with the Sunday Times, humbly paying gratitude to his past coaches and his polio-stricken parents for helping him come this far amid great obstacles.
“It was because of my local coaches, especially Suranjith (Fernando) and now Rock Light that I have been able to achieve this feat. I always respect my parents for encouraging me,” said Ushan, who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth enduring a difficult childhood coming from a low-income family. His parents earned their livelihood by working in Nylander Cooperative Society in Mahabage running a boutique and laundry service with a group of 20 similarly disabled members.
“Ushan loved athletics from small days taking part in sports meets when he was at Karunaratne Buddhist School in Mahabage, Ragama,” said his doting mother Devi Perera, who has been wheelchair-bound since the age of four.
“Dr. Ajith Wijesundera helped me a lot when I delivered Ushan. Coach Suranjith also helped him a lot in his athletic career,” she recalled with gratitude.
Ushan’s father Nandasiri Perera used to accompany him for practices to Negombo after he earned a scholarship at Maris Stella College despite being weak in his right arm and left leg.
“I took him for meets from small days and for practices,” he recalled.
Both parents were confident that he was destined for bigger things in life and encouraged him to pursue his Olympic dream despite the hardships they faced in life.
The proud parents of Ushan - Nandasiri and Devi Perera
Ushan took part in the sprints and long jump events when he was coached by Jayanthalal. He switched to high jump when he came under coaches Philip Ranjith and Suranjith Fernando at Maris Stella when he was 11 years old.
“I thought I can do it and I liked it,” said Ushan of his beginnings as a high jump athlete.
He showed early talent by blazing a trail in the Sir John Tarbat Junior Athletic Championships winning age groups from Under-12 to Under-15 setting records of 1.55m (Under-13) and 1.70m (Under-14) in the process before taking an enforced break to focus on his O/Ls.
He announced his arrival on the international scene when he won the gold medal at the 2015 Asian Youth Championships in Qatar and also followed a training camp in Palestine and Jordan. He returned to set a Junior National record of 2.07m when he was 17, winning the title in the next two years with leaps of 2.14m and 2.24m.
After being placed third twice and second in 2017 with a clearance of 2.14m in the 2017 Senior Nationals, Ushan became national champion in 2018 clearing a height of 2.18m beating record holder Manjula Kumara (2.14m) for the first time.
However, despite being selected for the 2018 Asian Games he was not on the flight to Indonesia because of official bungling.
Nevertheless, his life changed when he came under the influence of Asian Games gold medallist and Sri Lanka Olympian based in the United States Nagalingam Ethirweerasingham, who arranged a short training programme for Ushan in California in 2017. Ethirweerasingham also predicted a bright future for Ushan and urged him to follow higher studies in the USA to go with his athletic career.
Adjudged Best Athlete at the 2019 National Sports Festival, Ushan who had good results in both O/Ls and A/Ls first moved to Greater Arizona College in California early last year before obtaining a scholarship at Texas A&M University Commerce where he is studying for a major in Construction Engineering.
“Ushan has made a lot of sacrifices and dedicated his life to athletics. We always believed and were always confident that he would go to the Olympics. It is not only his dream but our dream that he brings glory to Sri Lanka in the international arena,” said Ushan’s proud parents, who nurtured him with great care despite suffering from disabilities themselves to ensure he reaches Olympian heights.