Spot and support children with talent, early
Children of ex-international athletes and of parents, who take special interest to develop their children to excel in sports and show potential, should be another target group of sport administrators in the country and private sectors to give financial aid.
Of late there has been a rising number of cases of athletes of the above group who have been struggling to get financial aid for studies and training for their children to pursue their dreams and do the nation proud.
Yes, there are many ex-international athletes and parents, who would rather encourage their children to pursue their studies alone, rather than divide their attention with sports.
But those ex-international athletes and parents who have gone the path to encourage their children to pursue sports, especially when the parents and both international athletes and their genes, plays a great part in their children excelling too.
Take for instance ex-international athletes, Samson Vallabouy and Josephine Mary, whose daughter Shereen’s struggle to find sponsors to finance her studies and training in the United States and the parents made huge sacrifices to get her off ground, before getting Better Malaysia Foundation to support her through Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s foundation (BMF) from May 2022 until December 2023 and went on to set records after records.
What saddens me another athlete who would have done equally well – her older sister Jocelyn – whom we lost at the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS), all because this girl from a small town Ipoh, could not cope with the city life style and returned home.
When Shereen joined BJSS later, Jocelyn wanted to return to after attaining good SPM results as her sister was there to accompany her, but she was denied entry because of some bureaucratic procedure.
If only Jocelyn, a State athlete, had returned to BJSS, probably we will be celebrating two athletes instead of just Shereen!
Shereen is in Florida since June after her last semester at Winona State University for an internship and further training under coach Derrick White.
She ran a blistering 23.33s at the Ed Murphey Classic at Memphis last week to erase G. Shanti’s national record of 23.37, registered at the Asian Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1998. Shereen’s previous was 23.42, set in Jacksonville last month.
Earlier, Shereen had finished on the podium of the women’s 400m with a time of 51.99.
On April 16, Shereen broke the national 400m record held by the late Rabia Abdul Salam with a time of 51.80s at the 63rd Annual Mt SAC Relays Athletics Championship, California, USA.
Shereen had previously broken the 400m indoor national record four times, with the last one helping her to win a gold medal at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia last May.
The 25-year-old Shereen now holds three national records – women’s 200m, women’s 400m (51.80) and indoor (52.27).
Another case I wish to high limelight, is swimmer Bryan Leong Xin Ren, which the world of swimming is currently abuzz with his achievements.
The 20-year-old recently garnered widespread attention by setting a new national record on the very first day of the swimming events at the FISU Games held in Chengdu.
Bryan clocked an impressive 24.35 seconds in the men’s 50 meters butterfly, edging the Malaysian national record by a mere 0.03 seconds. He is now revered as a triple national record holder.
Beyond his latest feat, he possesses the records for the 50 meters freestyle and the 100 meters butterfly. Bryan’s journey is as intriguing as his achievements.
Currently, he’s based in London, diligently pursuing his bachelor’s studies in the intricate fields of neuroscience and psychology at the prestigious King’s College London and also he’s refining his aquatic prowess with the Chelsea and Westminster swimming club.
British coach Lisa Bates, renowned in the swimming circuit, is mentoring and guiding him.
His parents, Leong KS and Nancy Hon, are no international athletes, but just passionate about sports and thus supported their son’s love for swimming.
Leong and Nancy who run a contractor business, supported their only son, but when it got expensive especially to finance his studies, several applications to private sectors and foundations were sent and after some interviews, all were with negative replies.
He is still financed by his parents despite difficulties.
Before that, Bryan as a 15-year-old who broke Olympic champion Joseph Schooling’s age group tournament record, was facing a bleak future after he was told to wait for one year if he wished to represent other states after initially refusing written permission from the Selangor Amateur Swimming Association (PRAS).
After media reported on the matter, he was finally allowed to swim and represent Kuala Lumpur where he had moved to join an international school. Then, came the disappointment of being left out of Sukma Games.
Are these the tribulations potential athletes in Malaysia have to go through?
Those who withstand the pressure and obstacles, strive in the end. But what about the many who crumble, are weak or simply just fed up with the politics, unfairness and lack of support, who quit?
Another example would be water skier Aaliyah Hanifah Yoong. She too had her struggles in the early days, but was lucky her father Hanifah Yoong, a former motor racer and, mother Nozie supported her, while getting assistance from equipment sponsors and corporate bodies and National Sports Council, before a foundation came to her aid to assist her to further her studies and training.
Aaliyah was a little luckier, but still had to go through struggles before being recognised.
Question here is how many potential athletes have we lost because we took our time to support potential athletes from this ‘distinguished’ group?
I personally know of athlete parents and parents, whose children who had potential to excel, but gave up because of lack of support, politics, unfairness and marginalised.
It is most often the parent who is the first person to introduce a child to sports and parental involvement can affect whether a child enjoys the experience or not.
The more positive and fun the parents attitude is about playing sports, the more their child will have interest.
We all know there are some parents that are over the top – but the majority of them are actually part of the solution, not part of the problem. In fact, without parent involvement, there is no way that youth sports leagues can function.
Even more so of parents who have been athletes because they have the genes and understand the sport better and the sacrifices needed.
Swimming, tenpin bowling, football, athletics and badminton are among the sports we have many parents and parents who were athletes involved.
It is about time, we emphasis and target these groups to look for our future champions rather than hire foreign sportsmen and women and offer them citizenship eventually.
The importance, support and role of parental involvement in youth sports certainly cannot be overlooked.
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