Is anybody really interested in the medals target for Malaysian athletes in the Commonwealth Games?
Gold Coast, Queensland
In the past few days the local sports commentariat has been abuzz with criticism of the Podium program for not announcing medal targets for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Tim Newenham, director of the Podium program, and chef de mission, Huang Ying How both say they don't want to put additional pressure on the athletes. Conversely former National Sports Council (NSC) director-general, Mazlan Ahmad says the athletes are used to pressure and that the public have a right to know what the targets are since millions of ringgit have been spent on the athletes training.
According to the New Straits Times Newenham said, "...that such expectations would only serve to add unnecessary pressure and weight of expectations on the athletes if such information is revealed." But how is this different from Malaysia's participation in any other international games? It's argued that the Commonwealth Games are much more competitive than the SEA Games, but so what? Pressure is always present in athletic contests. Not announcing a medal target won't do anything to reduce it.
But the other side of the argument seems equally silly. Mazlan Ahmad feels "the medal target should be made public knowledge for the benefit of the Rakyat." Claiming anything might be for the benefit of the public (rakyat) sounds good but does this make any sense? How does the public benefit from knowing what the targets are?
Something is odd about this issue. Sport administrators have found a way to draw attention to themselves (again) rather than the athletes by manufacturing this meaningless drama. Does anyone take these 'top secret medal targets' seriously? Who cares? If you're interested in the efforts of the Malaysian athletes then you'll follow events in the media and enjoy it. Medal targets won't be uppermost in your mind, if you even think of them at all. Those not interested...well, they're not interested. About the only people who might be interested in this kind of information are the administrators themselves.
Sport administrators are not what Malaysian sport is all about. Why do we never hear from the athletes? Or coaches for that matter? What do they expect in Australia? What are they looking forward to?