Two words. WE SUCK. As a nation we suck and as a sporting nation we suck more. We have a population of 20-25 million and we only send just 33 athletes? Not to mention the 29 officials who REALLY need to be there. But that is a whole other blog entry. Anyway, Malaysia is banking on badminton, archery and cycling to deliver the medals. HAH.. So we, at best, might only get 3 Medals? Whoopee!What happened to our Hockey team? Soccer team? Lawn Bowling team? Too bad Ten Pin Bowling and Squash aren't Olympic events, we might of had a glimmer of hope. Nicol David is the current Women's Squash world number one, so one gold there.
As it turns out, so far, we have won one silver medal and looks like it
would be Malaysia's ONLY Olympic Medal for 2008. Thanks to the efforts of Lee Chong Wei, who incidentally, is ranked number 2 in the world. Lee lost the gold medal match to China's World number 1 'Super Dan' in a stadium filled to capacity with a large partisan home crowd that urged the local hero to victory. Take nothing away from Lee, we are so proud of him. Lee gets RM 300,000 for the Silver, but I say give him the RM1,000,000 gold medal bonus as he single handed-ly united a nation and instilled some pride back in an otherwise dismal Olympic outing.Our archery team cracked under pressure and did not perform to the best of their abilities. Disappointment was written all over the faces of the Malaysian archery trio which failed to advance to the Olympics men's team semifinal after losing by five points to Italy in their Olympics debut. What stood out in their 213-218 loss to the Italians was their lack of exposure in the highly-charged atmosphere of the Olympic Archery Field. I say again, "cracked under pressure".
And our Cycling team? Well here is and excerpt from a news article about one of our cyclist. "Meanwhile In the quarter-finals of the men's sprint Chris Hoy, who broke the Olympic record in qualifying on Sunday, was at his imperious best against the flamboyant Malaysian Mohd Awang dismissing him in two classy rides." See the words used... FLAMBOYANT and DISMISS. You can always spot the Flamboyant Malaysian no matter where you go. We Malaysians seem to worry about looking the part more than focusing on the important aspect of actually performing. In this case, it didn't matter what expensive state of the art equipment Malaysia used, genetically, we were at a disadvantage. Chris Hoy is like 7ft tall or something, and ONE of his legs was the size BOTH of the Flamboyant legs combined.Point being, why can't we compete in events where we have a chance of wining, in events where our genetics complement the sport? Events like Badminton of course. Events like, the 50 Meter Air Pistol or Ping Pong or Rhythmic Gymnastics or Sailing or Fencing or Horse Jumping? You get the idea. There was one Olympics years ago, we actually entered a guy for the 100 Meter Sprint. Needless to say he came in dead last but broke our pitiful national record of 15 seconds or something. Yea!
By the way, did you see the 100 Meter race? That Bolt fella jogged his way to the world record, smiling and waving as he crossed the line. This guy probably sprinted out of his mother's womb from birth. It has been proven, that Negros have an extra muscle in their legs that give them that extra spring in their step. So there you go.
We as a nation have wasted millions investing in sports and where has it gotten us? Dead last and reputation of being stylish. Its truly the Twin Tower syndrome of wanting to be the best but not wanting to put in the hard work, and just paying for it.
Maybe it is the millions that is the problem. With politics and the corrupt leaders the constantly meddling in the affairs of sports. Everyone is looking to make a cut for themselves and not for the benefit of our athletes. As I said earlier, we send how many officials? 29? In fact, after all the middlemen.. how much is spent and how much of the budget actually filters down and reaches the sport?
I could tell you how much.... but first, what's is in it for me?
3 comments:
DITTO....in CAPS..all the way!!!!
So true....its teary...
I don't know man. Personally, I think we're throwing money at sports blindly. Generally, I don't think we have enough skilled personnel to nurture talent and more importantly, we don't have a system to develop the other important facets of being a pro athlete such proper conditioning/diet, development of mental strength and tactical knowledge of a game.
Stock and support. We have to have enough kids taking interest in sports seriously. I mean, if an average teen tells his/her parents that he/she wants to be an athlete, they'd get a clipping behind their ear and told to forget it and keep studying. Parents need to encourage their kids in sports and if they're good, to support it. The government also needs to lend a hand.
There is no national sports academy like the US, China or even Australia where these kids get to study and train with their peers. We have great or good enough sporting facilities but we need funding for the right development programs.
Much like the real world, we have great structures but don't have the proper planning or the right people with the right skills to use it efficiently. We built it but they're not coming ala Putra Jaya. lol!
Post a Comment