Rebuilding Malaysia's sport system
It's hard to fix a problem if you don't know what the problem is.
Malaysian sport is facing an existential crisis. Officials are scrambling to get athletes qualified for the Paris Olympic Games, but in one tournament after another athletes fall short, come up empty, or crash out as the local media likes to say. A few sports have exhausted all merit opportunities at qualifying and are hoping that some wildcard slots open up. Not all qualification windows are closed yet but the gloom is evident. Last year's heady optimism is gone and it now seems like everyone is just waiting for it all to be over.
In late 2023 the National Sports Council estimated that up to 30 athletes might claim spots in Paris, but as a result of its qualification misfires Malaysia is set to have its smallest Olympic team in several quads. So far only five athletes have secured spots in archery, sailing, diving, shooting, and cycling. The biggest disappointments have been in badminton and women's diving, although the window remains open for a few more weeks in badminton. There are also a few other sports with possible qualifiers, most notably cycling, but final chances will come later.
Badminton
Malaysia has always thought of itself as a badminton powerhouse, mostly because of Lee Chong Wei who challenged for the Olympic gold on three separate occasions. He was ranked as world number one for several years and shone in tournaments around the globe; the Olympic gold, however, was just out of reach. He settled for silver three times in 2008, 2012, and 2016 in the men's singles event. When he retired in 2019 the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), indeed the entire country wondered who would replace him.
Malaysia still has a stable of elite players both for men and women but none at the level of Lee. Some players had been expected to qualify by now, but due to inconsistency in recent tournaments, players and doubles pairs were eliminated before championship rounds. Officials, athletes and the public are on edge, panic is setting in.
The qualification window for Paris closes in late April for badminton and its non-success so far has a lot of people questioning the athletes preparation, the coaches programs, BAM's planning, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports financial support. Regardless of what you read in the media though no one has a real explanation for what's going on.
Women's diving
At the recent World Aquatic Championship in Doha, none of the Malaysian women divers finished high enough to qualify on merit, so unless Malaysia gets a few wildcard slots Paris will be the first Games since Atlanta (1996) that Malaysia did not have any entries in womens' diving.
Like badminton though, Malaysia has been depending on several superstars over multiple Olympic cycles.
Pandelela Rinong began her Olympic career in 2008. She won a bronze medal in London (2012) in the 10m platform and a silver in 2016 in the 10m synchronized event partnered with Cheong Jun Hoong (who has since retired).
Pandelela has been nursing recurring back injuries over a period of years. She did not medal in Tokyo and her recent performances have not been on par with her past efforts. The media and some administrators are blaming this on age, noting that the top women from China and North Korea are mostly teenagers.
Nur Dhabitah Sabri has been a top competitor internationally but has not medalled in the Olympics yet, though she did compete in 2016 and 2021. It was expected that both she and Pandelela would qualify for Paris in the recent Doha World Championship.
Malaysia is used to having a number of entrants in Olympic diving whether they medal or not. It had six women in Rio (2016) and five in Tokyo (2021), so the realization that it will have none at all in Paris has sent shockwaves throughout Malaysian sport.
The decline in performance was most notable in the high profile sports but to anyone paying attention it was obvious that it was happening across the board. And it didn't just happen while ramping up to Paris; disappointment occurred after the recent SEA Games and the Asian Games.
It's the Olympic Games though that usually draw the most attention because Malaysia is intensely focused on winning its first Olympic gold medal, a prize that has frustrated the country since its first Olympic appearance in 1956. Preparation includes highly organized training programs (Road to Gold), VIP involvement, government expenditure, and all the hype that would normally accompany those things. But the prospect of gold in Paris is not good and Malaysians know it.
Cycling?
Now that diving gold is off the table and badminton is curiously inconsistent, hopes have shifted to a keirin rider (a track cycling event), 36-year-old Azizulhasni Awang. He won bronze in the individual keirin in 2016 and a silver in the same event in 2021. Under normal circumstances he would be a top candidate for the first gold medal. Unfortunately he's recovering from heart surgery and suffering from occasional setbacks due to injury and other smaller health issues. The good news is that he is recovering and is healthy. The only question is, will he be healthy enough to challenge for gold in Paris?
The Road to Gold is Malaysia's all-hands-on-deck Olympic preparation effort. It was organized to identify athletes capable of medaling in Paris so that they could be provided resources to support their training. This could come in a variety of forms: Coaches, foreign training stints, monthly stipends, etc. The concept is to hold nothing back, everything will be done to produce the best Olympic team possible.
Regardless of what one thinks of a program like this, the mere fact that Malaysia created it and its precursor, the Podium Program, indicates how serious Malaysia takes the quest for gold. Of course, political considerations are important; any government would be happy to claim that it captured the country's first Olympic gold. And, these programs have survived several changes in government so their social value is accepted across the political spectrum.
Normally after setbacks like those mentioned above Malaysian sport administrators would do what they always seem to do i.e. more of the same, only better this time as they get ready for the next event: Spend more money; scold coaches, sport associations, and athletes; hold high level meetings; and make press announcements.
We'll know in a few months if this happens, but if it does it's old news, it's all been tried before. The fact that it keeps being the go-to plan for picking up the pieces following every competitive setback signals that officials don't know why Malaysian athletes are performing poorly, and don't have any real ideas about how to fix it other than spending more money or creating bigger programs. It's hard to fix a problem if you don't know what the problem is.
But to a long-time Malaysian sport observer things seem different this time. Officials are truly despondent and are now just going through the motions of preparing for Paris. The hope of sending a "super high quality" team has ended. And instead of recalibrating everything to a bigger, more expensive effort for the next time the question should be, why hasn't Malaysia won Olympic gold yet? What do other countries have that Malaysia doesn't? What are successful countries doing that Malaysia isn't doing?
If you read this newsletter then you know this is not a new topic for me, I've written about it here, here, and here. So, rather than repeat the same points, I want to discuss what actually needs to change and why. These are not in any order:
High performance sport should be under the control of individual sport associations; shift all athlete development tasks away from the Ministry of Youth and Sport, National Sports Council, and the Olympic Council of Malaysia. These top level bodies are administrative; it's simply not their job to produce high performance. Also, for too long the sport associations have had little more than a free ride when it comes to what they should be doing. Control and authority should be placed where it belongs. Setting the associations free will spur innovation that can benefit the entire system. This means that associations are accountable for performance, or lack of it.
Sport associations should be membership based. All officials, athletes, clubs, and administrators must be members of the association. Transparency of governance is essential. Currently, association leadership is often viewed as a lifetime appointment and it's sometimes impossible to get people to step away. In a truly transparent membership organization this won’t happen. Also, politicians and royal persons should not be allowed to hold leadership positions in any sport associations. Malaysia is a highly deferential society; placing high status individuals in charge of sport associations will stifle innovation.
Associations must develop a good club system throughout the country. Sport associations are administrative bodies. Clubs are where the rubber meets the road; they need more agency within the sport.
Increase the number of athletes, especially at the grassroots level. Government funding for sport associations should be tied to key performance indicators (KPIs) aimed at increasing the number of athletes in the country. Getting more athletes involved in regular activities is more important than high performance. Some may argue that results from international games, especially the Olympic medals won over the years, validates Malaysia's sport system. This overlooks the fact that Malaysia's bench is not that deep: It's the same individuals that produce these results over several Olympic cycles. Malaysia needs more athletes.
Stop funding sports that Malaysians do not play. The whole idea of government funding for sport is to improve national health through participation in easily accessible and affordable activities; high performance comes from that foundation. Funding sports like sailing, equestrian, or figure skating is unnecessary and wasteful. Athletes involved in these activities don't need government funding. Also, e-sports are not sports. Funding these activities just makes the government look foolish.
Athletes do not engage in sport to represent their country. This is a silly notion perpetuated by the media using ridiculous phrases like "reporting for duty" or "serving their country" when discussing athlete training or international competition. While it is certainly an honor to represent Malaysia in any international games, that's not why athletes are doing it. Athletes engage in sport because they like it; elite level performers are passionate about their participation. In no case do they chase Olympic qualification in order to serve their country. To think otherwise completely misunderstands the psychology of high performance.
There have been calls to rebuild sport in Malaysia, the most recent from Norza Zakaria, president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia. However, sweeping reforms face strong headwinds because sport associations are unlikely to agree what the problems are nor do they think that specifics brought up by experts apply to them. Football, for example, is different from diving or badminton, thus, the thinking goes, it must adopt solutions specific to the sport. This is incorrect.
At the foundational level all sports need the same things: Athletes, facilities, coaches, competitions, and the administrative structures to support them. At the high performance or professional level things are different but sports that ignore their grassroots will see little success at higher levels.
Successful sporting countries all do the same things to produce high performance athletes, they may do them differently but they do them. Unsuccessful countries have systemic gaps where key components are missing. In business terms this is known as the Anna Karenina principle, based on the opening line of Tolstoy's novel: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Here’s a more formal definition:
" …a deficiency in any one of a number of factors dooms an endeavor to failure. Consequently, a successful endeavor (subject to this principle) is one for which every possible deficiency has been avoided.” Wikipedia
Ideas are good, action is better
Often, the thinking of sport officials seems to be that tweaking the current model is all that is needed. Renewed efforts are mentioned all the time but new structures, new administrations, or new procedures rarely happen. Implementing something new is almost never tried. If the past predicts the future, Malaysia seems doomed to repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
No one is hoping for poor performances in Paris, certainly not the athletes. But if recent past performances are any indication then there's no reason to be overly optimistic either. As Norza said, Malaysia needs a reset, or more appropriately a rebuild of its sport system. And as I mentioned above, this time it seems different.