2024 Paris Olympic chief de mission Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin (right) with men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia during a press conference in Petaling Jaya, May 31, 2023. — GLENN GUAN/The Star
PETALING JAYA: The 2024 Paris Olympics chef-de-mission Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin had a fruitful meeting with top men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia on Wednesday (May 31) and promised to bring some of the requests to the Road to Gold (RTG) committee for consideration.
Hamidin, who is also the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president, continued his task of regularly meeting with the athletes who are part of the RTG programme, said that supporting the competition cost of the players was one of the requests raised by Zii Jia.
Although independent players have their sponsors to bear the expenses of competing overseas, the funding was not sufficient at times to play in as many tournaments as they needed to ensure qualification for Paris 2024.
Therefore, Hamidin felt the predicament faced by Zii Jia and the independent players sound reasonable and said he would bring up the matter to the RTG committee.
“There are some requests like the other BAM players and it’s feasible. We will bring it to the RTG meeting for further discussion.
“Bearing the cost of competing in tournaments abroad is among the matters that was discussed and we will bring it to the RTG for consideration.
“We want to treat every player, whether they are independent or under BAM, equally and all should reserve the support they deserve.”
Hamidin met Zii Jia and his sister Lee Zii Yii for dinner and discussed the shuttler’s progress and his programme in preparing towards Paris 2024.
