Eight defining moments

IN 1956, the Federation of Malaya Olympic Council (known as the Olympic Council of Malaysia since 1964) sent a contingent of 33 athletes from six sports to compete in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics for the first time.

Since then, Malaysia have competed in all the Olympics, except for the Moscow Games in 1980.

Here, we take a look at the highs and lows of Malaysian athletes in the greatest games on earth – the Olympics.

MELBOURNE 1956

THE Malaya hockey team competed in their first-ever Olympics - and their first ever-international competition. Hockey was among the five sports that took part in the Games. The others being athletics, swimming, weightlifting and shooting.

The hockey team did well in the preliminary rounds, losing once, but still ended up in ninth position in the 12-team competition. One of the more illustrious members of the team is Tan Sri P. Alagendra, who later became coach and manager of the national team before rising to become the MHF deputy president.

TOKYO 1964

DATUK Dr M. Jegathesan became the first Malaysian athlete to qualify for the semi-finals in the 200m. In Heat 5 of the first round, he clocked 20.92 – which is still a Malaysian record after 44 years! In the second round, Jegathesan recorded 21.4 to qualify for the semi-finals before he was eventually eliminated.

MUNICH 1972

FOR the first time in the history of Malaysian football, the national team – comprising the likes of M. Chandran, Soh Chin Aun, Wong Kam Fook, Shaharuddin Abdullah, Wong Choon Wah, Namat Abdullah, Lim Fung Kee, Ali Bakar and several others – played at the Olympics. Malaysia were drawn in Group A with West Germany, Morocco and the USA.

After losing to the Germans 0-3 in the opening game, Malaysia bounced back to beat the Americans 3-0. But their campaign ended prematurely after being thrashed 6-0 by Morocco.

The football team qualified for the Olympics a second time – Moscow 1980 – but did not take part as Malaysia was part of a US-led boycott to protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

BARCELONA 1992

AFTER being a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and an exhibition sport in 1988 in Seoul, badminton made its full-medal debut in Barcelona.

The Sidek brothers of Razif and Jalani had the honour of becoming the country’s first Olympic medallists when they returned with the bronze medal. Razif-Jalani were guaranteed the bronze after they advanced to the semi-finals. They eventually lost to then world No. 1 South Korean pair of Park Joo-bong-Kim Moon, who went on to win the gold.

ATLANTA 1996

THE play-off for the bronze medal was introduced for the first time and the men’s doubles pairs of Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock and Tan Kim Her-Soo Beng Kiang ensured Malaysia of at least a bronze when they powered their way into the semi-finals.

But second seeds Soon Kit-Beng Kiang went one step further when they beat Indonesia's Deny Kantono-Antonius 15-10, 15-4 to qualify for the final. They, however, went down fighting to top seeds Ricky Subagja-Rexy Mainaky 15-5, 13-15, 12-15 in 84 minutes. The silver medal remains Malaysia’s best ever performance at the Olympics.

SYDNEY 2000

LEE Wan Yuen became the first Malaysian taekwondo exponent to compete in the Olympics when the sport made its debut as a medal sport in Sydney. She had qualified for the Olympics after finishing second in the Asian qualifiers a few months earlier.

However, her Olympic experience lasted only 11 minutes – going down to France’s Myriam Baverel 4-8 in the first round of the women's over 67kg category.

ATHENS 2004

LIM Keng Liat became the first Malaysian swimmer to break into the top 16 semi-finals when he clocked the eighth fastest time of 55.22 in the men’s 100m backstroke. But the Malaysian blew his chance of going one step further when he swam 56.08 to finish 15th overall in the semi-finals. Keng Liat's performance is still the best by a Malaysian swimmer at the Olympics.

Track cyclist Josiah Ng did not earn a medal but he surely deserved one for the way he beat the odds to be among the best in the world in the keirin race. He became the first Malaysian to qualify for a track cycling final and eventually finished fifth. It was the best performance by a Malaysian athlete at the Games and Josiah deservingly won the Sportsman of the Year award.

The Star