Sri Lanka’s most decorated badminton player in history, Niluka Karunaratne officially announced his retirement from the sport yesterday (1 October) while representing the country at a forum in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Issuing a press release Niluka went down memory lane and notified the public of his future plans.
“I will be very much involved in the development of badminton and also all sports in Sri Lanka. Having worked hard before as an athlete for myself to represent my country, I’m motivated and eager to serve my country in a different way to develop the next generation of athletes to represent the country to compete internationally, give them exposure, and bring glory to Sri Lanka. That is my utmost aim and ambition,” said Niluka.
- Niluka is a three-time Olympian (2012, 2016, and 2020).
He has also represented:
- 5 World Championship Games
- 6 Commonwealth Games
- 2 Asian Games
Out of all, the champ has clinched 34 international medals while being the unbeaten Sri Lankan National Champion for 17 years.
“I have been contemplating this for some time. Even though I am eager and have the passion to continue, it’s my responsibility and time to hand it over to the next generation and following generations to prepare. If we can do that now, we can have better players than me in upcoming years,” said Niluka.
After winning many accolades and trophies throughout his career, Niluka will officially bow down from competitive sport leaving behind many fruitful memories and lessons to learn from the wins as well as losses in life. Niluka went on to win three gold medals on his international debut at the South Asian Junior (Under-16) tournament and the rest as they say is “history”.
The highlight of his career was leading Sri Lanka at the 2012 London Olympics, the first Royalist and only badminton player to do so. He beat Japan’s number one and world number eight in the first round to rank amongst the top 16 shuttlers. Niluka has won five gold medals in all five continents.
“It’s been a hell of a journey. People think I have been there for a long time. It is because I achieved a lot at a very young age. Then, you will be there for a long time,” Karunaratne concluded.