Susanthika Jayasinghe

Deshabandu Kameradin Susanthika Jayasinghe is a Sri Lankan retired sprinter, who specialised in the 100 and 200 metres. She won the Olympic silver medal for the 200m event in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the second Sri Lankan to win an Olympic medal after Duncan White and the first Asian woman to win an Olympic or World Championship medal in a sprint event. She is also the only Asian athlete to have claimed an Olympic medal in sprint events. She is also the first and only Sri Lankan to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. Her silver medal achievement at the 2000 Sydney Olympics also stood as the only Olympic medal for a South Asian in athletics event for 21 years before Neeraj Chopra's gold medal achievement at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is fondly nicknamed as the Asian Black Mare. She has represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics on three occasions in 1996, 2000 and 2008. She is considered one of the most decorated sprinters in Sri Lanka. However, she is also a deemed as a controversial figure in Sri Lanka.

17 December 1975

Born on the same birth date (17 December 1975): Eugene (wrestler) • Milla Jovovich

Born on the same birth day (17 December): Alan Khan • Andrew Simpson (sailor) • Bill Pullman • Erwin Piscator • Gerald Finnerman • Graham Rogers (actor) • Iván Pedroso • James Booker • James McGaugh • Joel Brooks • Kåre Valebrokk • Nat Wolff • Pope Francis • Simo Häyhä • Sophus Lie • Sotiris Kaiafas • Tracy Byrd • Vanessa Zima

Born in the same month (December 1975): B. J. Ryan • Ben Kay • Choi Sung-yong • December 27 • Josip Skoko • Olivier Tébily • Sergei Aschwanden • Takuya Onishi • Tom DeLonge