Athula Wijewickrema, a product of Kingswood College took up weightlifting at the age of 12 years in 1980 under the guidance of his uncle S. A. Wijewickrema who revived the sport in 1962 after 10 long years at the YMCA, Kandy.At the start, after several years of training Athula Wijewickrema won the Junior National Championship by establishing several records.He represented Sri Lanka at the Junior World Championship in 1984 in the United Kingdom..