Cherantha de Silva

At Kenyon College De Silva was also able to excel both academically, athletically, and in his professional career. As an Economics major 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. It is noteworthy that Kenyon is the most expensive college in the world as of June 20, 2023. 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." 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. 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, a Kenyon College Pool Record Holder in 4X100Y Individual Medley Relay, Kenyon College Varsity Record in the 4X50Y Medley Relay, Kenyon College varsity Record in 50Y Butterfly, and CSCAA Awardee in 2020, 2021,2022 and 2023. 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. === 2023 NCAA Men's Division III Swimming and Diving Championships === De Silva became a 2XNCAA national champion 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. Notably, he missed qualifying for the A final in his 100 free and 50 free; thus, those times came from the B final with resultant 9th place finishes. These efforts helped Kenyon to a second place finish behind the back to back national champions, Emory University. ==Filmography==

Lane 0 - The Lane of Dreams De Silva was featured in a documentary entitled "Lane 0 - The Lane of Dreams" documenting him and his team member's preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The director, Manuel Tera, describes the documentary as "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." The Documentary was nominated at the sports film festival in Italy and earned the "Golden Paladin" award. Storyline "A group of swimmers from developing nations train at a state-of-the-art sports center in Thailand. Working for the first time with proper facilities and under the guidance of a renown coach, they are making 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.They are currently participating in an experience that may have a significant impact on their future." ==Professional Swim Career==

===World Aquatics Championships=== ====2013 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships-Dubai==== De Silva participated in 2 events 50m Freestyle clocking 24.32 and 100 Butterfly clocking 57.79. ====2014 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)-Doha==== 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. ====2015 16th FINA World Championships-Kazan==== De Silva participated in the 2 men 2 women mixed relay team. ====2017 17th FINA World Championships-Budapest==== 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. ====2018 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)- Hangzhou==== "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." ====2021 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) - Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE==== De Silva competed in the 100m Butterfly and Freestyle representing Sri Lanka. ===2014 Commonwealth Games- Glassgow=== 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. ===2016 South Asian Games - Guwahati=== In 2016 De Silva participated at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, India where he won one gold, four silver and two bronze medals. 2017 7th National Short Course Swimming Championship- Singapore 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. (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.) ===2018 Commonwealth Games- GoldCoast=== In February 2018, de Silva was named to Sri Lanka's 2018 Commonwealth Games team. 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 Freestyle event earlier this morning." However, the team had met with an unexpected incident of disqualification which resulted in a great upset by the 4-man team. ===2018 Asian Games=== Following the success of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, De Silva was selected for the 2018 Asian Games which was held in August. ==Scholarships==

Sri Lankan Government Scholarship In 2014 the former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage sponsored De Silva to train at the Bolles School, Jacksonville, Florida. FINA/Thanyapura Scholarship De Silva was selected in 2015 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. His scholarship has been renewed for the next 4 years consecutively; in order 2015,2016,2017 and 2018. He was bestowed with the scholarships selected as the most deserving swimmer selected by the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union(SLASU). == Sponsorships ==

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. De Silva was also the brand ambassador of Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club Phuket in 2017. == Post-Swimming Career ==

Upon retirement from his record breaking 23 year swimming journey, De Silva now holds the Founding/Chairman position at CeyAnodes (Pvt) LTD. He is also a Director of his family owned business Kapla Motor Industries and he now uses his free time to write a book about swimming as an elite and professional swimmer along with his anecdotal experiences. ==Achievements==

Sri Lankan National Records International and Collegiate Level Records ==References==