Mathilda Thanuja Karlsson (born 27 September 1984 in

Kandy Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...

) is a Sri Lankan born Swedish equestrian athlete. Mathila hails from Sri Lanka and was adopted by her Swedish parents when she was three months old. She competed for Sweden until 2018, when she switched to her native country. In 2021 she qualified as an individual rider for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, being the first Sri Lankan equestrian at the Olympic Games. She also became the first Sri Lankan to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Her horse is named as Chopin VA.

Personal life

Mathilda was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka and was adopted by her Swedish parents when she was three months old. Spending her childhood being raised in Sweden, she started riding horses at the age of 7 under the Swedish banner. In 2017 she traveled back to Sri Lanka and realised she was a Sri Lankan and also felt she has to do something for her native country. She lives in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany where she runs and manages her own equestrian business Grönwohldhof with her partner Manfred von Allwohrden. She also trains, breeds and sells the horses in Grönwohld Hof. Mathilda is fluent in English, Swedish and German. Her equestrian centre Grönwohld Hof stables which is in Germany was demolished by a fire in May 2020. Two horses died in the tragic fire incident while the building which she owned was destroyed completely.

Career

She decided to compete for Sri Lanka in 2018 and became the first Sri Lankan show-jumper. By doing so, she is the first Sri Lankan equestrian at the Olympic Games. She also obtained the Swedish-Sri Lankan dual citizenship from the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Germany prior to the Olympics. She also faced difficulties before qualifying to the Olympics as part of her qualifying points were initially removed in February 2020, following an administrative error from the FEI; however, the decision on points removal was subsequently overturned by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

. She was ensured of Olympic berth following the successful appeal against FEI results cancellation. She received a direct qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics which also marked her debut appearance at the Olympics. She competed in the individual jumping. However, she failed to progress to the next round after being eliminated from the heat event mainly due to her horse which stopped twice. She has also competed at the

Global Champions Tour The Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) is an annual pre-eminent individual show jumping series that comprises up to 15 rounds of competition hosted around the world. It brings together the top 30 riders in the FEI Jumping World Rankings. It was ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karlsson, Mathilda 1984 births Living people Sri Lankan equestrians Sri Lankan jumping riders Equestrians at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic equestrians for Sri Lanka Sportspeople from Kandy Sportspeople from Hamburg Swedish people of Sri Lankan descent