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When Yupun Abeykoon, one of the finest sprinters Sri Lanka has ever produced, announced that he was walking away from the track, the news struck a national nerve. Within hours, a wave of screenshots spread across Facebook, each quoting a government minister appearing to mock the athlete, dismiss his worth, and celebrate his exit. The posts were incendiary, political, and shared in their hundreds. We investigated. Here is what we found.
Social Media Posts
Claim 1
A post claimed that Deputy Sports Minister Sugath Thilakaratne had said: “With the money Yupun is demanding, we could train ten athletes to run the 100 meters in under ten seconds.”
A second post attributed a further remark to the Deputy Minister: “If Yupun cannot run on the funds we pay, he is free to go home. We ran on our own money in our day. Nobody told us to run for government. We came to the sport out of love for it.” Facebook | Archived Link
Claim 2
Another post claimed that Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa had said: “Rather than paying three hundred thousand dollars now and hoping for medals from Yupun, we could invest a smaller amount in that young javelin thrower and win an Olympic gold. One Olympic gold is enough for this government.”
Claim 3
A third post claimed that Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chathuranga Abeysinghe had remarked: “It is good for the sport when ageing, worn-out athletes like Yupun retire.”
Claim 4
A fourth post claimed that Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage had said of Yupun Abeykoon: “Instead of the ones who ran for coins handed out by Harin, we have genuinely talented young athletes in our Red Star Force, and their children too. This is the time to give them a place. We cannot keep paying off Harin’s phantoms.”
Fact-Check
Chathuranga Abeysinghe and Nalinda Jayatissa Made No Such Statements
Ministers Chathuranga Abeysinghe and Nalinda Jayatissa have no direct link to the Ministry of Sports, and at their official press briefings they addressed only their own portfolios. Minister Nalinda Jayatissa, who serves as Cabinet Spokesperson, never commented on Yupun Abeykoon. Their media secretaries confirmed this to us.
Deputy Sports Minister Sugath Thilakaratne Made No Statement to the Media on Yupun
Our investigation confirmed that Deputy Sports Minister Sugath Thilakaratne made no statement and gave no comment to the media on this matter, either.
A Separate Statement by Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage Was Distorted
Only Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage officially addressed Yupun’s funding, and he did not make the direct statement shown in the viral posts. He explained that the government has no legal basis to pay, in a single lump sum, the 300,000 US dollars that former Sports Minister Harin Fernando is said to have promised Yupun without written approval.
He stressed that the government pays athletes under the Mission Olympic programme based on their current performance and rankings, not on verbal promises made by former ministers.
He added that the sum Yupun requested was different from, and larger than, what an ordinary athlete receives, but that the government stood ready to support him within the existing policy framework if he returned to compete for Sri Lanka.
Watch the minister’s remarks here.
What Actually Happened with Yupun Abeykoon
Sri Lankan sprinter Yupun Abeykoon announced his retirement in a post on his Facebook account on July 21.
He said that although he still had the time and the ability to compete, he had been pushed into a hard and painful decision to retire. He added that he would soon speak in detail about the state of Sri Lankan sport and the experiences he had faced.
Yupun said he was deeply proud to have brought honour to the country that raised him, but that he deeply regretted being left indebted to the foreign mentors and nations who had given him their coaching and technology and loved Sri Lanka through him. His post appears below.
After Yupun’s decision, a journalist put a question to the Sports Minister, and it was in reply to that question that the minister made the clarification described above.
Responding to the minister, Yupun Abeykoon explained that he had asked for a settlement of arrears, not a gift. The 300,000 US dollars, he said, was not a new condition but an official bill breakdown submitted to the government to clear outstanding payments accumulated since 2021 for his international coach and support team, including physiotherapists, along with airfare costs.
He said that competing internationally while based in Europe and maintaining a support team was expensive, running to between 2.5 and 3 million rupees per competition season, and that officials were discouraging athletes by failing to understand this reality. He added that the minister had framed his request as an ultimatum, a demand for money as a condition of competing, which he insisted was never his intention.
Watch his comments to the BBC on this issue here.
Yupun Abeykoon, the fastest man South Asia has produced, opened a new chapter in Sri Lankan track history. Born in Pannala on December 31, 1994, he studied at Pannala National School and Wennappuwa Joseph Vaz College before moving to Italy to pursue elite international training.
He drew global attention on July 3, 2022, when he clocked 9.96 seconds in Switzerland to become the first and only South Asian to break the ten-second barrier in the 100 meters. At the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games he won bronze in the 100 meters, ending Sri Lanka’s 24-year wait for a sprint medal. He holds the current national records in the 100 meters, 200 meters (20.37 seconds) and the indoor 60 meters (6.59 seconds).
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Conclusion
Yupun Abeykoon gave, as his reason for retiring, an administrative clash between clearing the arrears owed to support staff since the previous government and the strict fiscal framework of the current one.
The statements circulating in his name, however, tell a different story. The remarks attributed to Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage and Deputy Minister Sugath Thilakaratne, as well as to Ministers Nalinda Jayatissa and Chathuranga Abeysinghe, were not made by them. They were fabricated social media posts. Only Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage spoke publicly on the funding question, and his actual comments were distorted. We therefore rate these viral claims False.
Title: Viral Disinformation Floods Social Media in the Wake of Yupun Abeykoon’s Retirement
Fact Check By: Pavithra Sandamali
Result: False
