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SINGAPORE: Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has apologised to Malaysians for the country’s athletes’ failure to win a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, even as her former minister admitted that Malaysia’s performance was only “average”.
“I’m sorry because we haven’t succeeded yet. I didn’t use the word ‘failure’ because the ‘Road to Gold’ (RTG) program was set up not only for the Paris Olympics, but also for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028,” Ms Yang told local media in an interview on Tuesday (Aug 13).
Launched in March 2023 by Yeo Bee Yin’s ministry, the “Road to Gold” initiative aims to provide Malaysia’s elite athletes with the support they need to win the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal.
Ms Yeoh said on Tuesday the department would continue to support Malaysian athletes and coaches.
She added that the committee of the Path to Gold programme will meet to discuss technical reports of all teams participating in the Paris Olympics to assess their performance and prepare a report on the expenditure of the programme.
Meanwhile, former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin defended the performance of Malaysian athletes in the Paris Olympics, saying it was on par with their performances in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics.
But he added that the two bronze medals won in Paris fell short of the country’s five medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“I don’t consider it a failure, but we have to admit that our results are average,” he said in the podcast, as quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday the government was drawing up new plans to improve Malaysia’s sports performance after the Paris Olympics, where Malaysian athletes won two bronze medals.
He also added that Malaysians “We must accept this result” He also congratulated the Malaysian athletes participating in the Olympics.
The badminton team won two bronze medals at the recent Olympics – Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (Men’s Doubles) and Lee Zii Jia (Men’s Singles).
Hopes of winning gold were dashed because Cyclist Azizuhashini Awang On August 10, Azizulhasni was disqualified in the track cycling event due to a technical error. Azizulhasni won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Malaysia won a total of 15 silver and bronze medals, the most successful country in many years without a gold medal at the Olympics.
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