Tiana Sumanasekera Opens Up About Decision To Represent Sri Lanka

New Beginnings 

UCLA’s Tiana Sumanasekera has always been an athlete that represents the definition of artistic gymnastics. She seamlessly weaves artistry within her difficult skills, never allowing the viewer to look down while she’s performing. It’s this unique combination that has granted her an immense amount of success at just 18 years-old. The California native was one of Team USA’s top Elite gymnasts since making her senior debut in 2023. The five-time U.S. national team member is a 2023 Pan American Games Champion and 2024 Olympic alternate for Team USA. After competing at the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Championships, Sumanasekera moved from Texas to LA to begin competing for the UCLA Bruins. She was vocal about still wanting to compete at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. Following her star-studded freshman year with the Bruins, she decided to switch from competing for the U.S. to her parents’ native country of Sri Lanka, a decision Sumanasekera did not make easily. 

“Anything like this is not an easy decision,” she explained. “There’s so much thought behind it, and it definitely did take quite a bit of time, but for me it was ultimately making the best decision for myself in order to accomplish my goals, and that’s competing in the Olympics. There’s always going to be pros and cons, no matter what big decision you’re making, but at the end of the day, that was ultimately the decision that felt strongest, and what my heart wanted.”

Multiple factors contributed to Sumanasekera’s decision. She feels representing Sri Lanka is her best path to accomplishing her ultimate dream of competing at an Olympic Games. Competing with the depth of Team USA can be difficult, and even more challenging when coming so close to qualifying for a major event like an Olympic Games. 

“At the end of the day, when choosing the Olympic team, there’s only five spots, and five is so little when you think about it,” Sumanasekera said about making the U.S. Olympic team. “There’s so much depth in the U.S., and they can honestly make two to three Olympic teams with how much talent they have. I’ve been through so many of these selection processes, and I kind of know how much talent there is. It’s so tough not making the team, so I didn’t really want to experience that again, and I just wanted to give myself the best chance to make it to the Olympics.” 

Not only does making an Olympics fuel her decision, but also having the opportunity to bring visibility to gymnastics to an entire different part of the world. “I’m able to inspire younger generations, I’m able to bring recognitions to Sri Lanka and South Asia for support of gymnastics that has never really been talked about, almost ever,” she said.  “Bringing gymnastics to such an underrepresented side of the world means so much to me. That to me means so much more. There’s so many different doors that open when making this decision, and that’s what I was ultimately really excited to do.” 

Sumanasekera has already received an outpour of love from many friends, family, and teammates, but has also received many messages from Sri Lankans expressing their excitement about her decision. “I’ve been flooded with such incredible reception. It’s so heartwarming knowing that I have such an incredible support system, whether it’s my family, my friends, people from Sri Lanka, and South Asians as a whole. I’ve received so much love, and knowing that makes me feel even more proud and special for this opportunity.”

She’s still figuring out her plans for competitions in 2026, but has eyes on the 2027 season, including the Asian Championships and World Championships.

Gymnastics Meets Artistry 

Both of Sumanasekera’s parents were born in Sri Lanka before moving to the Bay Area in California where she and her brother were born. She holds citizenship of both the U.S. and Sri Lanka, making her transition simpler. Sri Lanka is a country that she holds close to her heart. She grew up visiting her parents’ birthplace as all of her grandparents and multiple aunts and uncles remain there. Sumanasekera fell in love with Sri Lankan culture, especially the food, weddings, and family traditions. Most importantly, she fell in love with Sri Lankan styled dancing and choreography, something she translates directly to her floor routines. 

For multiple years, her floor routines have highlighted her heritage through her dance. Heading into her freshman year at UCLA, Sumanasekera’s goal was to create a “Bollywood Princess” styled routine. With the help of UCLA Associate Head Coach and choreographer BJ Das, she created a magical routine that instantly became a fan favorite. Sumanasekera captures the attention of the entire crowd when her floor routine begins, casting a spell on the audience. She truly performs on the floor like it is her stage, taking advantage of opportunity to showcase her art. In 2026, she combined multiple different pieces of music including the “Bombay Theme”,  “Tujhe Dekha To” “Sheila Ki Jawani, and “Dola Re.” The music and dance resonated with many, and even went viral in Sri Lanka and around South Asia, something she did expect at the start of the year. 

“I instantly realized it was getting a lot of love,” she said about the routine. “At more and more UCLA home meets there were so many South Asians coming up to me and DMing me and saying how cool it is that they are seeing this South Asian, doing all these Bollywood and South Asian dances. That means so much to me and it’s so cool that I’m getting this recognition for representing South Asian culture.”

A post by ESPNW during the Regional Championships helped make the routine a social media sensation. 

“I opened social media, and it was flooded,” she said. “Being able to get that recognition for just dancing in my most authentic form was so cool. I’ve always been doing these South Asian routines, but to be able to finally reach quite a lot of visibility, and especially from Sri Lanka and India, was insane. I would have never imagined to expand from the U.S. all the way to Asia just for a floor routine.”

Sumanasekera is very intentional about the movement style she incorporates  into her routines. She loves bringing South Asian Bollywood aspects into the routine and finds inspiration from videos and media created from the music she selects. Having a choreography partner in Das is new for Sumanasekera. Her incredible routine from 2024 and 2025 was a one woman show. From finding music, to shortening it to fit her routine, to creating the choreography, everything was done by Sumanasekera. The routine set to the song “Shine” by BOND will always hold a special place in her heart. She had known of the song since she was seven years old, and created the routine in her living room. Her Elite teammates at WCC immediately fell in love with the routine when Sumanasekera first showed them. She will always cherish the hard work it took to bring that routine to life and the moments the routine brought on the competition floor.

“I will have to give it to everybody that cuts their floor music, because it’s tough, like the smallest of little pieces can make the biggest difference,” she said about cutting her own floor music. “I was on my computer cutting it for like seven hours straight, determined, because I didn’t want to forget the vision of it whatsoever. So I was like, I’m not leaving until I get this done”

At UCLA Sumanasekera loved having more time to perform in her NCAA routine with less required skills. 

“I think that took some time to get used to, because I was like, ‘are you sure we’re not supposed to have another skill, right?’ I was just in awe of how much choreo we could actually implement into the routine. I was having so much fun with it, because it just felt so natural to dance more.” Sumanasekera has expressed interest in potentially bringing her NCAA routines to the Elite gymnastic stage, and continuing to bring her Sri Lankan heritage to her future routines. 

“I definitely would say that I want to stay along the lines of South Asian choreo and implementing Sri Lankan dance as well,” Sumanasekera said. “I think there’s just so much variety in South Asian dance, whether that’s Bollywood or a specific part of South Asia, but I think that’s very my style, and I feel like it’s the easiest way to authentically show my natural self.”

A True Bruin 

One of the biggest delights of the 2026 NCAA season was watching Sumanasekera excel in every aspect. She competed each and every week with pure joy that delighted me and gymnastics fans all around the world. Not only was she joyous, but she performed each routine like a veteran. In just her freshman season she earned career high scores of 9.900 or better on every event and an All-Around high of 39.625. She also helped the Bruins to finish the season fifth in the nation. She entered the year with no expectations and just wanted to enjoy her experience. 

“I knew I wanted to go in and have fun, because college is all about this fun experience,” she said about her freshman year. “Down the road I was realizing that I’m having a great season so far, so I just wanted to keep up that great energy for myself as well as the team, mainly, and be able to perform to my best ability for the team, in whatever that was. It was mainly All-Around, and that was something I was so grateful for, because I would have never imagined competing all around in my freshman season.” 

Sumanasekera embraced every aspect of her college life. She’s a California girl at heart, so moving back to the golden state was something she was very excited about. She was also overjoyed about returning to in-person school after spending high school homeschooled. Her outgoing personality was yearning for more social interactions outside of the gym. 

“I just want to be with people. I just want to interact, so I was really looking forward to college because of that, and especially knowing that they’re so welcoming and so kind at UCLA, and so diverse as well. That’s something that I was really just excited to be a part of.” 

Being a part of a first place finish at the Big 10 Championships easily sticks out as her highlight of the 2026 season. UCLA brought their Bruin magic to the floor in Champaign, soaring to the title. The energy and hype surrounding the team that day is etched in Sumanasekera’s brain. 

“We’ve always had such a great connection with each other when competing as a team, but there was something in the air that day,” she said about the Big 10 Championship. “There was no other thought than just being in it together, and we were so excited, I mean, from the locker rooms to the warm up, it was just such great energy, and there was no doubt in our mind that we were  gonna have a great day.” 

One of the biggest surprises of the NCAA season for Sumanasekera was the way she excelled on bars, an event that could give her trouble prior to college. When I asked her about being a star on the event she immediately met me with laughter. 

“Want to know what feedback you got for your bar routine?” UCLA Head Coach Janelle McDonald asked Sumanasekera after their opening exhibition meet. “Do I want to know?” Sumanasekera replied. “They gave you a 9.900,” McDonald said. “I laughed probably the loudest I ever laughed before, because I thought she was joking,” Sumanasekera said while laughing. “They said they really loved your bars,” McDonald told her. “I have never heard that sentence in my life, never,” Sumanasekera said. 

This provided her with a huge boost of confidence on the event, and helped her earn a career-high of 9.925. 

Sumanasekera loved moving through each moment of the 2026 season with UCLA sisters by her side. The squad pushed each other on a daily basis, uplifting each other every step of the way. Olympic gold medalist, Jordan Chiles was the leader of the team throughout the year, something the team valued. 

“Knowing that she wants the best for us and for the team was just so important throughout the whole season,” she said about Chiles. “I think it was something that really helped us get to the end as strong as possible, and she’s so good with her words, and she knows how to cheer us up and lead us in the best ways possible to reach our fullest abilities.”

The Future Is Bright

Sumanasekera has always had an immense passion for gymnastics. That passion shines through in every conversation I have had with her. Competing at an Olympic Games would be a dream come true. The fact that the 2028 Olympics take place in her home state, in the city she currently resides, all while representing the country she holds so close to her heart is a picture perfect scenario. 

“It’s something that gets me so giddy every time I even think about it,” she said about the LA Olympics. “It couldn’t sound more perfect. Being a California native, and for it to be in LA, where I go to school, and just being able to have that opportunity and represent my parents’ home country, and something that’s so deeply rooted in me, There’s so many different things that play into factor with how incredible this opportunity would be for me. I can’t even believe how many stars align when thinking that it’s going to be in LA. It’s something I can’t wait for truly.” 

For now Sumanasekera is focused on her training and steps towards qualifying for the Olympics. She’s also excited to help design UCLA’s leotards for the upcoming NCAA season, and of course enjoying everything her future has in store.