A need for speed – in the arena and off it

MALAYSIANS have never been known for their speed, both on track and off it.

On track at least, Tan Sri Dr M. Jegathesan and Datuk Rabuan Pit have won 100m gold medals in the 74 years of Asian Games competitions. You can’t say the same about our administrators.

We are now three months into 2025 and Malaysian sports seems to be moving at snail’s pace.

Yes, our athletes and coaches are training, competing, and planning for the future. But where is the spark? What fresh, bold move are we making to change the course of Malaysian sport?

This is a post-Olympic year – a time when nations typically evaluate, regroup and lay the foundations for greater success.

For us, it should be a critical moment to kickstart efforts to finally end our long-wait for an Olympic gold. Instead, all we are seeing are the same tired decisions being recycled again and again.

New leaders are preparing for election. Some are still jostling for top spots and some long-time figures just won’t let go.

Politicians continue to make their “unwanted” presence in sports administration as if their day jobs weren’t demanding enough.

The latest was the special allowance to allow Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz to be nominated as the Badminton Association of Malaysia president.

Why?

Don’t we have anyone else who can turun padang and invest time in strengthening the badminton development programme? Really? No one?

What about the Sidek brothers Misbun, Razif, Jalani, Rashid and other former badminton greats such as Datuk Lee Chong Wei?

Chong Wei, thankfully, is in the Road to Gold programme together with two other former greats – Datuk Nicol David (squash) and Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi (hockey) – as Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh announced a 12-member cream of the crop management team last month.

The number of this “working team” continues to grow and it’s good that Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz and Mae Chen have been included but I’m still not sure why we need all the other top leaders from different sectors to be part of this.

Don’t they have enough to do as leaders from the Olympic Sports Council, National Sports Council and National Sports Institute?

It’s not that they are not capable but they do have big responsibilities in their respective portfolios with so many sports seeking their attention.

We keep wasting time in choosing people to run sports and most of the time, we end up naming the same people to do the same thing.

Remember the famous quote – insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.

But there’s a bigger question – who will be selected for the Road to Gold programme?

They have yet to name the athletes, although it has been eight months since the last Olympics in Paris ended.

Is there going to be new criteria in athletes’ selection? Can we expect an uproar when the list is revealed?

Will professional shuttlers get in? How will they be monitored?

Will men’s hockey get in? If we want men’s hockey to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, we need to include them in the Road to Gold so that they get to enjoy the best facilities.

Or do we wait for them to try and qualify before getting into the Road to Gold? That will be making it into a chicken-and-egg situation.

Football continues to bleed with issues of unpaid wages. How much longer do we keep doing the same thing, while expecting different results?

This is an important year to plan for the four-year Olympic cycle. There is the Thailand SEA Games in December and the Asian Games in Japan next year.

We have to get our sports structure right by laying the right foundation.

It should not only look good on paper, but it must be workable and produce results at the end of the day.

No one is asking for anything drastic. No Donald Trump-ish executive orders are needed.

We just need something new, different and effective – something that can fast-track Malaysian sports and finally get our hearts racing with hope and excitement again.