KUALA LUMPUR: An Australian social media influencer has chimed in with her critique of the Malaysian Olympic contingent's official attire.
Through a TikTok account post, @beejamieson, who has criticised many other countries' designs for the Olympics before, said weighed in on the issue because of the requests she received on social media.
She said the Malaysia contingent's offical attire were unsuitable for the Olympics because they do not make athletes swell with patriotic pride.
She also agreed with some comments that described the outfits as "ugly" and "unispring".
"I myself have expressed a lot of criticism toward my own country's design choices, and I know that I said that the United State's uniform looks like 'Talladega Nights' that takes place on the moon, but it does make you feel patriotic.
"This (showing Malaysia's attire for the Olympics) looks like a high school uniform. This does not make you swell with pride.
She also slammed Malaysia for using unconvincing mannequins to model the unimpressive Olympic uniforms despite the country's large population.
"Malaysia has a population of over 34 million, but we couldn't get anyone to model. They had to use mannequins. Not good mannequins, by the way.
"This one (one of the mannequins shown in the pictures) looks like it's about to topple," she said.
In the comments section, Netizens said they felt embarrassed by how ugly the uniform looks, as even influencers from abroad criticised them.
"So much so that foreigners commented on our clothes. I feel very embarrassed even though I didn't design them," said user @yatie.
User @ddd.u said the worst part is when the organiser said Malaysia does not need fancy designs if the country doesn't bring back any medals.
"Do you know what's worse? The organiser even said 'Why do we need those designs if our athletes won't bring any medals anyway…' The audacity to say that," she wrote.
"As a Malaysian, I agree with you. This is the worst design that I have ever seen," said user @koyakla.ek.
Yesterday, the New Straits Times' Timesport reported that the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) is working with sports equipment company Yonex to design new attire exclusively for Malaysian athletes going to the Paris Games.
A source told Timesport that the OCM is working to produce exclusive attire only for an estimated 25 athletes, while coaches, support staff, and officials will continue using the current attire.