DURING the Paris Olympics, many Malaysians complained about our athletes' performance.
Malaysia has won 15 Olympic medals, with the first coming in 1992, but gold is still elusive.
Badminton won 11 medals (six silver, five bronze), reaffirming the country's world-class status.
Diving comes next with two medals (one silver, one bronze). The same with cycling.
In Paris, there were narrow misses in the badminton women's doubles and the men's 61kg weightlifting.
And I nedn't dwell on the heartbreak in the keirin cycling event.
It's time for a re-think of our athletic development. At the top of the mind is grassroots development.
Emphasis should be on talent in schools. We can't wait till they've left school. Some of the Paris Olympians were just teenagers.
China's Zheng Haohao, born on the last day of the London 2012 Olympics, was the youngest Chinese athlete in the women's skateboard event won by Arisa Trew, 14, from Australia.
Quincy Wilson, 16, was part of theUnited States 4x400m relay team that won the gold.
These kuda muda (young stallions or mares) have a great future.
Gone are the days when sports teachers toiled through school-day afternoons to ensure that their charges excelled at not only inter-district events but also at state and national events.
These were teachers who produced our national greats then.
Without a policy change, we will be going nowhere, with most content to flaunt their state or national jerseys.
We have to ask ourselves: do we stand a ghost of a chance in Olympic events like athletics, sailing or equestrian?
Maybe there's a thin fine line in diving, archery, shooting or even hockey.
But we'd be kidding ourselves if we set our sights on basketball, football, volleyball, handball, boxing, wrestling, table tennis, tennis, kayaking, canoeing, water polo or marathon swimming.
Look at sports where the average Malaysian physique can match others.
Instead of lamenting what went wrong at the velodrome, why don't we look at BMX cycling, a sport that has been around since the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
Why didn't we have a BMX cycling team since we had known about this since 2008?
It's simple enough that riders race on a course with rollers, jumps and banked turns from a gate atop an 8m-high start hill.
What about mountain biking and road racing?
There should be enough Malaysians to compete on rugged cross-country courses that test their endurance, technique and stamina without the tricky rules of keirin cycling.
What about rhythmic gymnastics, an event we did quite well at the 2022 Commonwealth Games?
There's also rock climbing, a sport that thrives on agility.
How about rowing? We can certainly bank on our riverine settlers in Sarawak to be our flag bearers.
This is where the National Sports Council, whose role is to govern and promote sporting activities, should get cracking.
With squash included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, let's not be complacent.
Learn from what US tennis great Arthur Ashe said: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."
The writer is a former Bernama chief executive officer and editor-in-chief