AN EMOTIONAL DECISION

COLUMN – By Tony Mariadass

Emotional and popular decision on Chef-de-mission?

It was a great tribute and honour to name retired Datuk Lee Chong as the Chef-de-mission for the Tokyo Olympics next year.

I personally thought it was the best thing to offer this illustrious badminton legend for all his sacrifices he made to bring glory to the nation who was forced to retire without realising his Olympics gold medal dream because of his illness.

But as an afterthought and weighing the announcement to name Chong Wei as the chef-de-mission by Youth and Sport Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, at retirement announcement press conference last Wednesday, it left me wondering if it was the right and wise decision.

For starters, the announcement by the Sports Minister was a case of putting the cart before the horse.

It is learnt that the appointment of the Chef-de-mission for the Tokyo Olympics was not discussed and endorsed by the Olympics Council of Malaysia (OCM) executive board (OCM is the sole body responsible for the appointment of chef-de-missions for Games) prior to the Sports Minister’s announcement.

However, the decision to appoint Chong Wei was said to have been endorsed after the OCM’s executive council meeting only on Saturday before their Annual General Meeting.

OCM president was quoted as saying after the executive council meeting: “We have endorsed Chong Wei as chef-de-mission for Olympics. We know he might face some difficulties’ in Tokyo, so we will assign officials to assist him.”

The fact of the matter is that the Sports Minister did not propose to OCM to name Chong Wei (which should have been the case) but instead announced the appointment last Wednesday.

Thus, it is obvious Chong Wei’s appointment was not discussed earlier, but was decided by a few individuals who probably thought that it was most popular decision to make.

Leaving the process of appointment aside, Chong Wei probably accepted the chef-de-mission responsibility and not turning it down, out of respect.

While he had clearly stated over and over in his announcement of retirement that it was solely because of his health, wonder if he will be up to it to take the hectic chef-de-mission role.

With no discredit to Chong Wei, his proficiency in the English language, could also pose additional problems in his role as chef-de-mission. What about preparing reports after the Games? Of course the National Sports Council can assist, but will that be an independent non-bias report?

His ban for doping (whether his actions were done knowingly or not) which he served, does not stand well in his capacity as chef-de-mission.

Would it not have been better to honour Chong Wei by naming the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Academy in his name, which stand in time and live forever.

It would have also been better to name Chong Wei as the badminton team manager to the Tokyo Olympics which will be less hectic on him and give him the full platform to motivate the badminton players and dedicate his total time to them as he tries to realise to win the first Olympic gold through his charges.

It is still not late to make amends to his hasty decision to name Chong Wei as the chef-de-mission.

Chong Wei will be magnanimous if he turns it down and instead probably name another icon who retired recently too – Nicol David – to replace him.

Indeed, food for thought?

After all the squash queen Nicol David also had her squash career spanning for 20 years and was eight-time world champion.

The 35-year-old in announcing her retirement earlier his month had done so in non-fanfare fashion, has an equally illustrious career with 81 PSA titles from 102 final and held the world No. 1 spot for a record 109 months consecutively from 2006 to 2015.

Recognised as the greatest female squash athlete of all time by her peers, she certainly would be a great candidate for the Tokyo Olympics.

Of course, critics will be quick to point out that Chong Wei was a three-time silver medallist and Nicol is not an Olympian.

But through no fault of hers she did not have an opportunity at the Olympics medal as the sports has yet to gain entry to the Games.

After all, several Malaysian chef-de-missions for past Olympics who were officials, were not Olympians!

 Nicol David has campaigned tirelessly for several years to get her sport into the Olympic Games programme and has been hailed ‘wonderful ambassador’, ‘living legend’ and ‘role model’ by her peers.

Sadly, squash did not come aboard the Olympics Games.

She so wanted to compete in the Olympics and had said before squash was not given the nod and her retirement: “I would give up my seven World Open Squash titles for just one Olympic Gold – so I still hope I can have something to look forward to if squash is given that chance to be included in the Olympics in 2020.”

What better way than to reward Nicol the honour to be the Tokyo Olympics Chef-de-mission.

Besides, if given the honour she would be the first woman Chef-de-mission for the Malaysian contingent to Olympics and what a powerful boost and inspiration for women in sports.

FOOTNOTE:

The IOC was founded more than a century ago to harness the power of sport at the service of humanity. Traditionally, women were not allowed to participate in the Games, which were exclusively for men. Times have changed, and the IOC has played an important role in establishing a positive trend to enhance women’s participation in sport.

Over the last 30 years, the IOC has been advocating for the participation of women at all levels, encouraging National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs) to enhance the presence of women in sport at all levels.

IOC most recently, made changes to the event programme for Tokyo 2020 which will see female participation rise to a projected 48.8 per cent, with double the number of mixed events compared to Rio 2016, while Beijing 2022 will also see an increase in women’s and mixed events to reach a record 45.44 per cent female representation at a Winter Games.