Don’t waste money on them

TO avoid the waste of public funds, only athletes who have the potential to win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games or who are in the same league as track cycling star Azizulhasni Awang, are worthy of being absorbed into the Podium Programme.

This was voiced by former Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) honorary secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi.

He feels that the programme, which began in 2016 with the mission of delivering Malaysia their first Olympic gold in 2020 in Tokyo, is not on course to meeting the goals.

“Whether the programme should be continued or not, it depends on the assessment that will be carried out,” said Kok Chi.

“The question now is why up to 148 athletes were chosen for the Podium Programme when there are only three or four athletes with the potential to win Olympic gold?

“Actually the Podium Programme only needs to focus on athletes such as Azizulhasni because the main objective is to get the country’s first Olympic gold, and not silver or bronze, or for that matter athletes who can only merely qualify for the Olympics.

Kok Chi, who is considered a veteran in the sporting arena after close to three decades with OCM, said the time has come for national athletes to be broken into three groups to ensure that expenditure and costing are more worthwhile.

“Actually national athletes should be divided into groups of athletes with the potential to win gold, followed by those who can qualify but have no potential of becoming medallist, and those who do not stand a chance of qualifying, should be dropped from the programme.

“Why should we waste money on athletes who do not even stand a chance of qualifying for the Olympics in the first place?”

The future of the Podium Programme has come into question after Malaysia could only finish 14th with seven gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze medals.

For the record, the Podium Programme began in 2016, and was given an allocation of RM75 million that year with the National Sports Institute given the job of managing the programme.