| Cherantha de Silva | |
| Fullname: | K. T. Cherantha Gihash De Silva |
| Nicknames: | "Cheran","Machine", "Cheriff", "Tha" |
| Strokes: | Freestyle and Butterfly |
| Club: | Thanyapura [1] |
| Coach: | Miguel Lopez |
| Birth Date: | 1996 7, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Weight: | 73kg (161lb) |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Cherantha De Silva (born 12 July 1996) is a Sri Lankan medal-winning swimmer, who has represented his country at 6 World Aquatics Championships, 3 FINA World Cup's, 2 Commonwealth Games, 1 Asian Games as well as 1 South Asian Games, winning 7 medals.De Silva broke 6 Sri Lankan national records and 4 internationally recognized records (more details below).[2] [3] Further, De Silva qualified with 4 World championship B standards(B cuts) for the 2018, 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) held in Hangzhou, China. He narrowly missed the A standard (A cut) in the 50m Butterfly (SCM) clocking 23.48. While the A standard could have made history for Sri Lanka as the first Sri Lankan to achieve the A standard he missed it by 0.2 seconds.[4] Also, De Silva was bestowed the "Best Sportsman of the Year" award at the school level,[5] provincial and Sri Lanka school level.
To top off his swim career De Silva earned a scholarship to study in the US at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He earned a bachelors degree in Economics.
At Kenyon College De Silva was also able to excel both academically, athletically, and in his professional career. As an Economics major[6] and Integrated Program in Humane Studies(IPHS) minor, De Silva was a multiple merit list awardee for distinguishing himself with academic success and the College recognizes this honor with a notation on his official transcript. De Silva went on to be inducted into the Alpha Iota Sigma honors society for his outstanding work in IPHS along with all other IPHS minors.[7] It is noteworthy that Kenyon is the most expensive college in the world as of June 20, 2023.[8]
Additionally, De Silva was able to conduct Kenyon's first Virtual Reality demo where he mentioned the following: " I want to revolutionize the traditional classroom in Kenyon College because I feel like in the 1980s we were using chalkboards and whiteboards, but now we’re using projectors and laptops."[9] De Silva found ways to study, perform in varsity elite sport as well as to contribute to Kenyon in various ways such as the above. In De Silva's junior year, he studied abroad in Milan, Italy, and Copenhagen, Denmark focusing on Entrepreneurship and Econometrics.[10]
Athletically De Silva performed at Kenyon's highest level at the NCAA Men's Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. He was able to become a 2-time NCAA National Champion and earned a total of 10X All-American titles, became an NCAC 2020 Conference Record Holder in 100Y Butterfly,[11] a Kenyon College Pool Record Holder in 4X100Y Individual Medley Relay, Kenyon College Varsity Record in the 4X50Y Medley Relay,[12] Kenyon College varsity Record in 50Y Butterfly,[12] a Toyota US Open Championships 2022 Qualifier in 100m fly and 50m free[13] and CSCAA Awardee in 2020, 2021,2022 and 2023.[14]
The 2023 NCAA Men's Division III Swimming and Diving Championships was De Silva's first and only NCAA participation. Due to the pandemic in the year 2020—which stemmed from COVID-19—the previous NCAA championships was canceled. In his Junior year, he studied abroad. Further, in 2020, De Silva qualified for the 2020 NCAA Men's Division III Swimming and Diving Championships as a strong contender who already had his meters to yards converted time(at the time) faster than the NCAA DIII national record in the 100y butterfly and was the reigning NCAC champion going into NCAA's: however, the event was canceled 4 days prior to the meet.
De Silva became a 2XNCAA national champion[15] and was bestowed 5XAll American titles at this competition. He competed in the 100y butterfly, 100y freestyle, and 50y freestyle where he swam best times in all of them going 46.95, 43,84, and 19.83 (and 19.33 off a relay start) seconds respectively.[16]
De Silva had the honor to be a part of the so-called world's first swimmer's movie. Named "Lane zero-The Lane of Dreams" showcases his and his team member's preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics.The director of this award-winning documentary named Manuel Tera describes the documentary like this "A feature-length documentary about the struggle of a group of swimmers from developing nations trying to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time. A story about pursuing your dreams and overcoming adversity."[17] The Documentary has been nominated at the sports film festival in Italy[18] and it was able to secure an award for "The Best Sound". At present, the documentary has been sold to North and South America as well as a few countries in Europe.
StorylineA group of swimmers from developing nations train hard at a state-of-the-art sports center in Thailand. Working for the first time with proper facilities and under the guidance of a world-class coach, they are making amazing progress and improving on their personal best each time. They have one year left in order to qualify for the Olympics. For most of them, it would be the first time somebody from their country gets through on their own merit. In a country full of inaccessible swimming pools, Shajan and Sajina are two Maldivian sisters who train in the sea. Nepalese Sofia can only swim during the summertime because there are no heated pools in the Himalayas. Eroi is a Rwandese boy who trains in a lake watching Internet videos. These are just some of the characters of Lane 0, a story about those unknown athletes who race in the side lanes and always finish last. Now they are immersed in an experience that will change their lives forever.[19]
De Silva participated in 2 events 50m Freestyle clocking 24.32 and 100 Butterfly clocking 57.79.[20]
De Silva subsequently competed in the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships held in Doha, Qatar, where he swam in the heats of the Open 50m butterfly, Open 100m butterfly, Open 50m freestyle and Open 100m freestyle.[21]
De Silva participated in the 2 men 2 women mixed relay team.[22]
Having been able to compete in the 50m Butterfly as well as the 100m Butterfly event he was able to secure a world ranking of 49 and 55 with a time of 25.15 and 55.09 respectively.
"Of the two men and two women swim team, Cherantha De Silva, Thimali Bandara and Savindi Jayaweera took the pool on the opening two days of the championship but had to hit the hay when they failed to advance to the semifinals amidst fierce competition."[23] [24]
De Silva competed in the 100m Butterfly and Freestyle representing Sri Lanka.[25] [26]
De Silva participated at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, competing in the 50m and 100m freestyle and the 50m and 100m butterfly but failed to progress past the heats.[27]
In 2016 De Silva participated at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, India where he won one gold, four silver and two bronze medals.[28]
In December 2017, De Silva was able to set history for Sri Lanka by breaking a foreign national record. De Silva was able to shatter Singapore Olympian Quah Wen Zeng's 50-m butterfly record, thus renewing it to 23.48 seconds.[29] (He broke the Singapore national record and Sri Lankan national record, as well as set a new meet record in this race.) The specialty of De Silva's performance was that he was able to break 11 records across 10 events(heats and finals) in just two days. (record summary: Combination of heats, finals, and a meet record.)[30]
In February 2018, de Silva was named to Sri Lanka's 2018 Commonwealth Games team.[31] [32] This was his 2nd representation of the Commonwealth Games edition.Cherantha was part of 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team that made history for Sri Lanka by advancing in to the finals. "The 4-man swim team representation in the Gold Coast, powered their way through to the final of the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle event earlier this morning."[33] [34] However, the team had met with an unexpected incident of disqualification which resulted in a great upset by the 4-man team.[35]
Following the success of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, De Silva was selected for the 2018 Asian Games which was held in August.[36] [37]
In 2014 the former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage sponsored De Silva to train at the Bolles School, Jacksonville, Florida.
De Silva was selected in 2015[38] by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) to receive the country's first FINA affiliated international training scholarship to train at the Thanyapura Aquatic Training Centre in Phuket, Thailand.[39] His scholarship has been renewed for the next 4 years consecutively; in order 2015,2016,2017 and 2018.[40] He was bestowed with the scholarships selected as the most deserving swimmer selected by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union(SLASU).[41]
De Silva had a full-fledged sponsorship from Australia's largest swim brand, Way Funky, under their Funky Trunks brand. This marked the first time in Sri Lankan history that a Sri Lankan swimmer had been sponsored by an international corporation. They sponsored him due to his impressive performance, image and likeness, providing support for all his swimming needs, including swim gear and swimwear.[42]
De Silva was also the brand ambassador of Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club Phuket in 2017.