NATIONAL DUTY COMES FIRST
MOA ready to support young Olympians in their commitments
SUKHAIRI THANI sukhairi@nstp.com.my
THE Malaysian Olympian Association (MOA) will not “push” their young members to take part in programmes organised by the association due to their national duties.
MOA president Karu Selvaratnam, whose association have 367 members following last year’s Rio Olympics, said young Olympians are bound to have a packed training schedule apart from competition commitments.
Karu, a 400m runner who took part in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, said the MOA do not want to impose on the young Olympians and will give them breathing space especially when it involves programmes under the MOA.
“It is difficult to get them (to join MOA projects) because they are often busy preparing for competitions and the Olympics of course,” he said after MOA’s annual general meeting yesterday.
“They are busy training and taking part in competitions (locally and overseas). So we will leave them be and when there’s free time from serious activities and competition commitment, then they can come and help us out.
“At the same time, we will give them the support that they need.”
Olympian membership in the MOA is automatic and out of the 367 members, 311 are men.
Hockey has the most members with 117 while swimming has 13 female members.
On MOA’s programmes next year, Karu said: “For this year, we were not that active because we did not have enough funds and the re-registration of the association took quite some time to complete.
“Next year, perhaps there will be more to look forward to. We have plans and activities in mind and it’s only a matter of time before we carry them all out.”
For this year, we were not that active because we did not have enough funds and the re-registration of the association took quite some time to complete. Next year, perhaps there will be more to look forward to.”