Twelve-year-old Eashwarage shines in Canada

Ranumi Eashwarage

Source:Dailynews

Ranumi Eashwarage is a Canadian born swimmer of Sri Lankan origin. She is currently the fastest 12 years old female sprinter in Canada for her age in butterfly and freestyle. On July 10th, 2022, Ranumi engraved her name in Canadian record books with a new Alberta provincial age group record for the girls 12 and under 50m butterfly short course. That 50-butterfly time broke the previous record once was held by Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Rebecca Smith and after her, Canadian National team swimmer Kyla Leibel for the last eight years. This 12-year old’s 50m butterfly time is faster than the current Sri Lankan woman’ national record for this event of all ages.

“It’s amazing. It was the last day of the meet. I was just trying to put in every bit of strength I had in me. I knew coming into this meet that with all the training I’ve had, I would set at least one new record- if not more”, Ranumi said after the race.

With all her dedication and hard work, Ranumi was able to earn number 1 rank in all of Canada for 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle in both long course and short course for her age in 2021/2022 meets. Her amazing swim talents were first identified at the age of 6, when she surprised her parents by completing all the available swim levels in the city of Calgary for 5–12-year-olds. Then her parents signed her up for a swim club introducing competitive swimming and she never looked back.The 12-year-old rising star who was inspired by Michael Phelps for always practicing the hardest to become the best of the best. Her Sri Lankan born mother and father who graduated from Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa said “It is hard to set a new record at this stage as the previous world class Canadian swimmers have already set up those records even tougher when they were young. Therefore, these records are not broken frequently. It was the moment that we were hoping for. On the other hand, this is a sport that almost every Canadian child learns from a young age – So, holding the number-one- rank in Canada for an entire swimming season among thousands of same age swimmers is truly remarkable.”

The 12-year-old sprinter had an incredibly successful season this year 2022, winning 50m, 100m butterfly and freestyle in each swim meet including Spring and Summer Provincial Championships. “She always came home with many podium finishes and aggregate winner awards”, her parents further stated.

Additionally, Ranumi is keen on piano, saxophone, guitar, art, and public speaking. She can read, write, and fluently speak the Sinhala language although she was born and raised in Canada. Apart from the fluency in English and Sinhala, she is learning two other languages as well. Ranumi’s motto: “Be yourself and be unique. Start where others have stopped.”