IN 1956, Malaya competed at the Olympics for the first time with 33 athletes in Melbourne. Among them were 100m sprinter Annie Choong, who became the first woman Olympian while weightlifter Tan Kim Bee became the nation's first Olympic flag bearer.
l The 1964 Tokyo Games saw the nation competing for sthe first time as Malaysia. It was our largest contingent to date with 66 athletes competing in 10 sports. Among them was track and field great Tan Sri Dr M Jegathesan who became the first Malaysian to reach the semi-finals of the men's 200m sprint, a feat he would replicate at the 1968 Mexico Games.
l The 1972 Munich Games saw Malaysia making history by qualifying for the Olympic football semi-final. The squad finished third in their group after going down to West Germany 3-0 and Morocco 6-0 while beating the United States 3-0.
l The 1976 Montreal Games saw the late Ishtiaq Mubarak entering the history books as the first Malaysian to reach the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles, and only the second Malaysian to reach an Olympic athletics semis after Dr Jegathesan.
l Malaysia qualified for football but did not compete in the 1980 Moscow Games after joining a US-led boycott in protest over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Malaysia have not qualified for the Olympic football event since then.
l The 1988 Seoul Olympics saw badminton and taekwondo introduced as demonstration sports. Malaysia's M. Vasugi won bronze though it did not count officially as taekwondo would only become a full fledged Olympic sport at 2000 Sydney.
l Badminton became an official Olympic sport at the 1992 Barcelona Games, paving the way for Malaysia to win their first ever Olympic medal, a bronze, through men's doubles Razif and Jalani Sidek.
l Malaysia, for the first time, won two Olympic medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games, again through badminton with doubles Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock bagging silver) and men's singles Rashid Sidek getting bronze. The Atlanta Games also marked the first time Malaysia competed in sailing and canoeing.
l The 2004 Athens Games witnessed diver Bryan Nickson Lomas becoming the youngest Malaysian to qualify for the Olympics at age 14. He was also the second youngest athlete to compete in Athens after Vanuatu sprinter Katura Marae who was a few days younger than Bryan.
l After Malaysia's barren run in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei ended the medal drought by winning silver in men's singles at the 2008 Beijing Games. It was the first of his three Olympic silver medals.
l Diver Pandelela Rinong became the first female flag bearer for the country at the 2012 London Olympics. She went on to deliver the nation's first medal from a sport other than badminton by clinching bronze in the women's 10m platform individual event. Chong Wei won his second Olympic silver in London.
l Malaysia achieved their best ever haul at the Olympics to date at the 2016 Rio Games, coming home with four silver and one bronze. Shuttlers Chong Wei (men's singles), Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong (men's doubles), Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (mixed doubles) and divers Pandelela-Cheong Jun Hoong (women's 10m synchro) all won silver. Cyclist Azizulhasni Awang got a bronze in keirin, the first time Malaysia won an Olympic medal in cycling.
l The 2020 Tokyo Games are postponed to this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and will be held behind closed doors. For the first time in history, national athletes are forced to train in a biosecure bubble for the Olympics
Prior to the pandemic, the only times the Olympics were affected by global crisis were during World War I and II, which caused the cancellation of the 1916, 1940 and 1944 editions.