Thursday, August 07, 2008

Team Malaysia

It's now just a day away. The much anticipated 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics has finally 'arrived'... and I can't wait to watch the opening ceremony. I know it's going to be colourful, exciting & unique - this is afterall the world's biggest event organised by a nation who dare do all things big, China.

Team Malaysia 2008
But as any citizen, aside from the Opening ceremony, one will most likely to follow the news on our team Malaysia.

Malaysia will be participating in a fair bit of events - from archrery, atheletics, aquatics (diving & swimming), taekwando & weightlifting.

However, the medal hopefuls will come more so in the one that has given Malaysia 1 silver & 2 bronzes - badminton. The badminton batch for this 2008 Olympic Games is actually not very different from the one sent in the previous 2004 Games. Yes, there is additional women's singles - Wong Mew Chew and newly formed pair Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong but the rest from 2nd seed Lee Chong Wei, Wong Choon Hann, Tan Fok - Wan Wah and even women's doubles Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty are not new to the games.

And Malaysia aims to get its coloured medal (of any colour) through mainly from Chong Wei or Tan Fook-Wan Wah.

Can Team Malaysia Live To Expectations?
Seriously, I don't want to predict. The stakes in 2000 & 2004 were also rather high, and team Malaysia came home empty handed. Even in 1996, I remember watching the gruelling match of the men's doubles finals.

Soon Kit - Kim Hock were so close to the gold, but again only achieved silver (this is the pair that is quite 'unlucky' despite being very talented & consistent, as they always loose out to Ricky-Rexy in most finals). But yes, I'm glad they at least won silver.

The question now would be, can team Malaysia live up to the 'Malaysia Boleh!' (Malaysia Can) spirit this time round and win a medal for Malaysia? We've done it thrice, why not this time?

Go For Gold, Nothing Less
I would like to give a 'good challenge' to them to in fact bring back gold - aim for a higher colour (the highest) and then go all out for it. It's a theory, aim for mediocore (or not aiming at all) begets mediocore or worse off results... aim for good results, and you achieve good results, or at least close to the best.

And a note, the Olympics should not be a familiarisation ground or testing ground... Just look at this: a player usually have at most 3 times at going for glory (ie 3 Olympics feature usually).

If one is to take the first debut as its testing (usually around the age of early 20s), then there is only 2 more hopes left thereafter, that is if one still qualifies. And if again, at their peak (usually mid 20s) is again a testing ground, that only leaves the final round when the player is about late 20s or 30s... but by then, despite the experience, there is a lot of catch up in stamina.

The Underdogs
Badminton aside, I would say, let's also watch cycling with the likes of Malaysian fighters Josiah Ng & also in sailing by Kevin Lim. These are go-getters & true to the Malaysia Boleh spirit, setting high hopes & never die attitude.

Of course, the other participants also have a figthing chance to bring back glory, especially with a proper spirit of Malaysia Boleh! & a mindset of aiming nothing less than no. 1.

*Lee Chong Wei & Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong are part of the 50+1 Malaysians in the 50+1 Malaysia book.

10 comments:

  1. Ooh! I can't wait for the opening ceremony too! It'll open at 8.08pm on 8/8/08. What an excellent use of the auspicious number! This is China's huge moment and we shall see how China delivers! So exciting!

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  2. yup yup yup, all the best to malaysia team!

    i cannot watch the ceromony la, coz my house dont have TV~

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  3. hey quachee, u a badminton fan too? Me too.. if u see my older posts, i hv written about the super series, (short ones only la) and how i look forward to watching them perform each time.. but i dont want to expect much from them in this olympics.. china has too good players around..single and double alike...
    lets hope our Lee Chong Wei BOLEH!!

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  4. Hi Quachee, thanks for visiting my blog. :) U been to SG before?

    Oh Malaysia also called their atheletes "Team Malaysia", Singapore too, called themselves "Team Singapore".. many all countries do the same. Hopefully everything goes smoothly for this summer games, after so many disastrous incidents going on in China this year.

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  5. Hi Quachee!

    Thank you for visiting my blog!

    The much anticipated Beijing Summer Games is going to start in a few hours' time! It's a big thing for the Chinese! First in history! I am pretty excited to watch the grand opening. Just hope that everything goes smoothly for the Games, after so many troubles happening in China, with so much external pressures they gonna face.

    Hope to see you again!

    p.s:I tried to leave a comment for you yesterday but didn't know why it gave me some error messages. Hope you don't get duplicated comments from me. :)

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  6. foongpc & eunice

    yes, its so exciting that it is china...! i think of all asian countries so far, china is closer to our attention - it really is just a global magnet :)

    *eunice no worries, there's no extra comments. sorry for the hassle u went thru though :)


    bb community
    oh u must see the games...! well, try going for mamak - got big screen.

    or watch online via those free tv.

    try not to miss heh.. worse come to worse, buy the dvd or ask friend record.

    if u really want, got way want :)


    reanaclaire
    its cool heh to see how malaysians come together to support our team... its not the colour, not the ethnic/ race, but all for 1 malaysia :)

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  7. the opening ceremony was amazing! i have never watched any Olympic opening ceremony before. i didn't know that it would be so beautiful. too bad i couldn't watch it until the end.

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  8. Hie! I'm back.Muahaha! Yeah! Malaysia mesti boleh. Hopefully Malaysia can winmore than 1 medal.=)

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  9. hi mystica

    i guess many were tuned in for their first times or were more excited for this games heh. i guess partly its good timing for us here in asia :)

    this olympics really is exciting!


    tekkaus
    wow, has been so long since ive heard from you... welcome back! and yes, lets rally behind team malaysia! :)

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  10. Good luck to your team as well as to our team - the Philippines' Team. (",)

    Thanks for the visit and the comment. Happy weekend!

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Oh hey, thank you for commenting! :)