KUALA LUMPUR: National shuttler Lee Zii Jia is intent on winning a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The former All England champion will be the country's sole representative in the men's singles tournament in Paris.
"In all honesty, I'm not being arrogant, my goal is not to qualify for the Olympics but win," he said in an audio clip shared on Team LZJ's official X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
"I know I have the potential to win but I realise I am still struggling with my performance."
The world No. 10 said he was not celebrating qualifying for the Olympics because he aimed to win the gold medal.
The coming Olympics is the second edition of the games that Zii Jia has qualified for.
For the record, the only other Malaysian badminton player to qualify for more than one Olympics is former world No. 1, Datuk Lee Chong Wei.
Lee played in four Olympic games, namely Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Zii Jia exited at the round of 16, after losing to China's Cheng Long across three sets.
Aside from Zii Jia, other shuttlers who have qualified for the Paris Olympics are Goh Jin Wei (women's singles), Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (men's doubles), Pearly Tan-M Thinaah (women's doubles) and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles).
Zii Jia said he felt sorry for the country's No 2 shuttler, Ng Tze Yong who missed out on qualifying for the Paris Olympics after suffering an injury.
"I don't know if I can compete in the Olympics again after this. I hope to be free of injuries and be at my best to compete this time."
The Paris Olympics will be held between July 26 and Aug 11.