Christine Merrill: Sri Lanka’s Hot Hurdler
Christine at the opening ceremony.
Christine Sonali Merrill is a California born Sri Lankan who’s competing in the 400m hurdles at the 2012 Olympics. Round 1 of that is on August 5th. She’s especially notable because she’s hot, which has been getting attention online. You may also remember her from the cover of Hi! Magazine.
She only visits Sri Lanka for a few weeks a year, but she has citizenship (through her mother I think) and is proud to rep the country. So good for her. Hurdles is really hard, I hope she does well in the upcoming qualifier. And she’s an engineer. Super eligible. There’s a longer story about here here.
Christine in Hi!
Christine before the Olympics.
Hurdles is one of my favorite events, because there’s so much that can go wrong. So it’s mad tense. Check out this interactive from the NYTimes to see how precise the event is. This video of Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke is also ridic:
Via Andrew Sullivan, there’s been a study showing that over 85% of TV coverage was devoted to coverage of women’s sports in their skimpies though, to be fair, those are the best sports and people do compete in minimal clothes. I mean, the original Olympics were naked.
[N]early three-quarters of the women’s coverage was devoted to gymnastics, swimming, diving and beach volleyball. Notice anything they have in common? The researchers did. “It is now customary for the participants in all of these events … to wear the equivalent of a bathing suit,” they note in their analysis, which appears in the journal Electronic News.
Track and field, where the clothing is almost as minimal, made up another 13 percent of the women’s prime-time coverage. “The remaining sports represented—rowing, cycling, and fencing—are not, by traditional standards, ‘socially acceptable’ sports for women, and make up approximately 2 percent of coverage,” the researchers write. (psmag.com)
But, yeah. So Sri Lanka’s not doing so killer in the medal hunt, but we do have one of the hottest athletes. So there.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
she’s a keeper
She does us proud.
About the skimpy outfits, they’d naturally feel very confident about how they look when in peak physical condition. I undertand they also use the body language to psych out the competition. All of it counts.
I’m all for it ;)
Seriously, it would be a waste not to flaunt it after all the sacrifices they must have made while training.
Now don’t come back next year and ask where all the girls are. :p
Ha ha, I probably will but still….
Her facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/ChristineSonaliMerrill
Oh man…Michelle Jenneke!!!
The only reason Christine is representing Sri Lanka, is because her timing is not good enough to represent the US team. Do you really believe that she would have represented SL if she had qualified for the US team??? :O
Spoken like a Rajapakse.
Its true though no?
Since she was BORN in California, she was obviously an American now taking duel citizenship. She is completing in the SL team for the obvious reason of incapability to make it to the American team. I don’t like people like this. Cunning people who have no values. Just trying to get attention by jumping into the SL team cos she can’t even dream of making into the American team. Also, this woman is a Christian. Accent should be also like a American. If this woman’s Father is White, then that makes her a 1/2 caste. I can’t stand people like this. Why can’t they stick to where they really belong, in this case the US without trying to fool people into thinking that they are “athletes” when in reality they are not (just college level athlete in the US. So she is trying to jump lots of steps ahead by making it into a 3rd would country Olympic team).
It’s petty-minded people like you that make me despair about the future of what I still hope I can continue to legitimately call “our country”
There is a grain of truth here. Ambitious US college level athlete uses SL dual identity to compete in Olympics.
hey amaris, why should her being a cdristian be a problem to,represent SL ? any way she did what no one from SL could do on that day on that track. The Presence of Sri Lanka ! yes she might have not been selected for the US team at least she gave her best for the next best option…she will be recognized as a Sri Lankan. Be appriciative if you have any respect for the sport.
Unfortunately she could only place 30th fastest in the first round heats of the 400m Hurdles so her Olympics are over now.
So this 1/2 breed woman came last. Obvisouldy, she did not qualify for the olympics. Went on SL wide card entry. So, she was there just for the ride. I personally find these type of 1/2 breed (This woman’s father is White) disgusting. This also proves that for Sri Lankans to be “hot” they have to cross-breed with Europeans, which unfortunately I also have to agree with, looking at reality that is. If this womans’ father was not White, she would most probably look like Susanthika, dark and ugly. The truth hurts, in case of Sri Lanka,s REALLY BAD.
First you say you hate her then you say she’s hot. Which is it dude? BTW re Susanthika, you shouldn’t talk about your mum in that way.