KUALA LUMPUR: Despite winning three silver medals, badminton legend Lee Chong Wei admitted he was a bundle of nerves every time he played in the Olympics.
If there was one experience he valued the most, it was his maiden appearance at the 2004 Athens Games.
Chong Wei, 41, hopes his experience will help the current batch of shuttlers to be better prepared mentally at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I still remember qualifying for the 2004 Olympics at the last minute, I didn't expect it at all because the ones who had qualified first were Wong Choong Hann and Roslin Hashim.
"I earned my spot because I managed to move up to No. 15 in the world at that time after reaching the quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships.
"There was no pressure on me then because no one had expected me to win anything. Surprisingly, I made it to the second round and lost to China's Chen Hong. I was disappointed but I learned so much from that first experience," said Chong Wei after opening the SOUL Sports Physio and Rehab centre in Mont Kiara today.
Also present were Youth abd Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, Chong Wei's co-partners for the centre, Datuk Mike Tee, CEO of SOUL Sports Physio and Rehab, and Datuk Seri Lee Tian Hock, who is also the president of the Malaysian Basketball Association.
Chong Wei said he started feeling more pressured when he became the main hope for Malaysia's first Olympic gold at the 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio) editions.
The former World No. 1 said he would revisit the 2004 experience whenever he felt overwhelmed by expectations.
"It's never easy managing the stress and pressure, but the experience is what will eventually help an athlete. I'm sharing my experience because playing at the Olympics is so different from other tournaments."
Since Chong Wei's retirement in 2019, the hopes of the nation have fallen on the shoulders of cyclist Azizulhasni Awang and world No. 4 men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia.
Yeoh said the allocation for each athlete under the Road to Gold (RTG) programme will be finalised after they come back from their overseas competitions.
"We will look into the details, the budget needed for each athlete and the support we can offer. Most importantly is they will have the full support in qualifying for the Olympics.
"Most of them are overseas, we will wait for them to come back before meeting them. We understand that the professional athletes mainly need a lot of support in terms of facilities from the National Sports Institute," she said.