LETTERS: Malaysians were thrilled by the achievement of our women's badminton doubles, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, in reaching the semifinals in the Olympic Games.
We also cheered our mixed pair, Chen Tan Jie and Toh Ee Wei, for nearly getting to the semi-finals and the gallant effort of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, to win the bronze medal match.
Congratulations also to singles ace Lee Zii Jia for gaining his first Olympic success and Malaysia's second bronze medal in the third-place match.
That aside, the 2024 Olympic experience is the perfect time to assess how we can best prepare for optimal success in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Adjustments must be made to produce elite athletes and grow our talent pool for future champions, placing greater emphasis on grassroots sports development for various age groups.
We must establish binding requirements that determine the selection of athletes.
These established parameters must be clearly defined, be objective and void of any outside influences. Therefore, fairness should be built into the system.
Basically, athletes are selected according to their Olympic, world rankings and their performance records in major competitions, such as the Asean University Games, Sea Games and the Asian and Commonwealth Games.
Falling short in any of these areas should automatically remove the athlete from the selection process. These basic standards should be the same for every sport and athlete.
This year, we had two instances of questionable selections.
In athletics, we choose an athlete with a lower Olympic and world ranking over another athlete with a higher world ranking and a higher competition profile.
Another injustice was by the Paralympic Swimming Association, when it selected a swimmer with a lower performance achievements over another who had a superior performance record.
This can be demoralising for athletes and their families.
The disregard for selection protocols must be corrected; and the responsibility for that, again, falls directly on the Olympic Council of Malaysia, the youth and sports minister and the respective national sports associations.
Another critical concern directly determining the success of our Olympic and Paralympic Programmes is their budgets.
It is high time to re-evaluate the wisdom of continuing to send athletes to the Olympics in sports in which we are non-competitive that they will be eliminated in they first round heats.
At the Olympics, we witnessed an inspiring example of what can be accomplished by targeting an achieving athlete.
Sprinter Julien Alfred, from the small island of St. Lucia (only 240,000 residents), won the women's 100m race in 10.72sec, to garner her country's first ever Olympic gold medal. She prefaced her Olympic victory by also winning a gold medal in the 60m sprint at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
Why not begin investing funds wisely in a national grassroots development programme to identify, target and groom future champions in a variety of sports?
We also need to invest significantly in securing and retaining top-notch coaches with proven success records, along with sports psychologists, for cutting-edge mental training. Elite coaching teams develop superior-performing athletes.
We should send only world-class competitors in the mould of Julien Alfred, who trains in Texas, to the Olympics. Only then will it be a sound investment of the taxpayers' money.
C. SATHASIVAM SITHERAVELLU
Seremban, Negri Sembilan
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times