High time for us to aim for the top

Winning feat: Alfred, representing St Lucia, won the gold and silver in the women’s 100m and 200m sprints respectively at the Paris Olympics. — Reuters

HERE’S a geography trivia question. Where exactly is St Lucia?

You don’t know? Neither did I – at least not until this last week. Now, I do. It’s an island nation somewhere in the Caribbean and is part of the West Indies.

Ditto for Dominica.

Dominica? Yes, there is a country called Dominica, and it is not the Dominican Republic, which is nearer to Cuba and Puerto Rico.

St Lucia has a population of less than 200,000, while Dominica – a 45-minute flight away – has less than 75,000.

And guess what, both island nations have Olympic gold medals to show from Paris, their first ever.

St Lucia has a gold and a silver, both delivered by sprinter Julien Alfred in the women’s 100m and 200m sprints. For Dominica, it was Thea LaFond who delivered gold in the women’s triple jump.

It was incredible watching these women celebrate their victories and ringing the bell at the Stade de France.

What of Malaysia, with a population more than 150 times that of St Lucia’s? Well, we have two medals too, with two bronzes coming from the one sport we have excelled in since the 1950s – badminton.

But no gold, despite 68 years of participation. It’s quite sad.

Even our regional neighbours are getting ahead of us. At last count, Thailand had at least 12 golds from the Olympics over the years, Indonesia has managed nine and the Philippines have three, with Carlos Yulo delivering two this year in gymnastics. Even Vietnam and Singapore have one gold each, with Joseph Schooling even chalking up an Olympic record in swimming in 2016. Only Timor-Leste, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have yet to join the regional list of medallists.

For quite some time now, we have been going to the Olympics with athletes well-prepared and millions spent on getting them ready. Each time, we hope one of them will return with gold – and each time we are disappointed.It’s like we have great fighters who can battle all the way to the line, but when it comes to crossing that line between gold and lesser medals, they just cannot muster the strength – or the ability – to do so.

Don’t get me wrong – I am in no way disappointed with the performances of our athletes in Paris, especially real-life hero cyclist Datuk Azizulhasni Awang, weightlifter Aniq Kasdan and the badminton players.

The women’s doubles pair of Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah were amazing. The world No.13 duo faced players ranked higher than them from day one, losing only to the world No.1 Chinese pair and world No.4 Japanese.

The men’s doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik produced a monumental fightback that will probably be talked about decades from now, coming from 20-16 down in the second game after losing the first 16-21 and then going on to win the rubber 21-19.But that was in the bronze medal match. How wonderful if they had managed to pull off a feat like that in the semi-final.

Lee Zii Jia also did the country proud in the men’s singles, mounting an amazing fightback against India’s Lakshya Sen to win in three games. It was a victory that caused a huge row back in India.

Prakash Padukone, the coach, could not believe that Lakshya had surrendered such a lead, and his vitriolic attack on the player saw others biting back at him.

Again, the Zii Jia show only hit the limelight in the third-place match. If only he had beaten Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the semi- final.

There is no point in crying over spilt milk now, and both Aaron-Wooi Yik and Zii Jia have vowed to go for gold at the next Olympics in 2028. And with squash as an Olympics sport there, our chances will look brighter.

But it won’t be enough to just train. Something extra is needed for our athletes to come back with gold. And that something is mental strength and single-mindedness.

Ask Tan Sri Dr M. Jegathesan. He was a man who ran in three Olympics back in the day when Malaysia did not have the facilities to compete with the best.

Yet, he became the first Malaysian to qualify for two Olympics 200m semi-finals – a feat yet to be matched by any Malaysian track athlete.

“I went to the Olympics wanting to break the national record and I did just that,” he said. That record of 20.92s was set in 1968 and stood for 49 years.

It was confidence, he says, that made him achieve the feat. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, and worked hard to get it done.It works. Julien Alfred vowed to be “the next Usain Bolt” after her sports-crazy father died when she was just 12. And she worked on it.

Her rival, American Sha’Carri Richardson – who took silver in the 100m – and Swedish pole vault champion Armand Duplantis were just 18 and freshmen at Louisiana State University in the United States when they both vowed to become Olympians.

Duplantis won gold in Paris while Sha’Carri is 100m world champion having won at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Our athletes need that kind of mental fortitude and training.

“This mental strength can be taught,” says Dr Jegathesan. “It can be inculcated in athletes. Then they can succeed.”

Let’s hope our experts can ensure our athletes have that strength and finally deliver that elusive gold in Los Angeles.

We have to learn from St Lucia and Dominica, or even Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. Of course, we could look to India (population almost 1.5 billion, no gold, one silver and three bronzes from Paris) for consolation.

But I would prefer we look for inspiration rather than consolation.