Kuala Lumpur: Can Malaysia break its gold medal drought at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics?
The Malaysians have never struck gold in the history of the Summer Olympics, despite claiming 8 silver and 5 bronze medals.
The doubles coaching director of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) – Rexy Mainaky said that it’s now up to the World No. 7 pair – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik to get their act together and to realize their dream of winning gold at the Olympics.
“With about a year and a half left before the games start, Aaron/Wooi Yik need to make good use of the time available to prepare for the Olympics,” said Mainaky.
“After heart-to-heart conversations with them, they said they wanted to be the first Malaysian athletes to win Olympic gold and also become a world champion,” added Mainaky.
“However, that requires a lot of effort and hard work. We only have a year and a half left instead of two years,” continued Mainaky.
“I told them, when I first competed in the Olympics, I advanced to the quarterfinals and the next edition I managed to win gold. They, on the other hand, were able to win bronze first time playing in the Olympics.”
“So, they need to put in more effort in order to win gold in Paris. It’s up to them to either to push themselves or vice versa.”
Rexy, who won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics partnering Ricky Subagja, was confident that Chia/Soh would be able to win at least an international title in 2022.
“So far, they have been very positive. They want to be champions in several tournaments this year including the World Championships and the Asian Games,” revealed Mainaky.
Chia/Soh have a strong chance of winning their first international title since being paired in 2017 at the 2022 German Open which will take place in Muelheim from March 8 to March 13. It’s a BWF World Tour Super 300 event and offers prize money of USD $200,000.
The pair will take on compatriots Goh V Shem/Low Juan Shen in the first round.
