HUGE congratulations to Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik for nabbing bronze in the badminton men’s doubles category, the first for Malaysia. The thriller contest saw the dynamic duo clawing their way back from the brink of defeat to overcome Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen with the score of 16-21, 22-20, 21-19. It was indeed a touching scene to watch the Malaysian flag being raised on French soil.
Theirs was a repeat from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Their victory was tweeted by Bernama, and immediately picked up by Malaysian patriots and badminton fans alike, even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
As usual, the comment section was filled with congratulations from proud Malaysians.
Interestingly, Malaysian custom also influenced the sizable number of comments requesting for a national holiday, with one netizen even cheekily suggesting that a holiday will be very beneficial for the current government’s bid for re-election.
Another painted some political colours to the story by citing UMNO, which previously called the Chinese as immigrants. He added that the “immigrants” had now contributed two bronze medals at two Olympics.
On the other hand, netizen @ayyaturai pointed out that it is such memorable events that will transcend the problem of racism that has always plagued our great nation and bring unity to Malaysians of differing creed and culture.
Moving on, a netizen lamented Malaysia’s lack of gold in the history of the Olympics. The concerned netizen further urged PMX to rebuild Malaysian sports by not re-electing “dinosaur” athletes but virtuous candidates who can better advance Malaysian sports.
Unfortunately, PMX has yet to make any statement on additional public holidays. Holidays aside, hopefully Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik’s victory will be accompanied by many more victories to come.
To recap, Malaysia recorded a total of one silver (Track Cycling), and one bronze medal (Badminton: Men’s Doubles) in the previous Olympics.
Back then, the Malaysian delegation missed the target of three medals, including a gold medal, with badminton, track cycling and diving being the main contenders of achieving the target. Can Malaysia surpass its previous performance in the summer Olympics in Tokyo 2020? We can only wait and watch. – Aug 5, 2024
Main image credit: Olympic Malaysia
