Monday, August 06, 2012

Lee Chong Wei: a model for Singapore Olympics sports

Just as some Singaporeans are still (feeling) euphoric about Feng Tian Wei’s bronze medal win in the ongoing Olympics games, our female table tennis team comprising Feng Tian Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Lee Jia Wei were defeated by their Japanese counterparts in the semi-finals today (2 a.m today) with no winning game at all in the match as consolation.



When I looked at the score lines of our female paddlers for the above match, I was disappointed as it seems that they did not really give their best despite so much monies being spent on their training.

Was it because that Feng Tian Wei has already clinched a single Olympic medal in 52 years for Singapore that the female table tennis team feels conceited and thought that they have already met the expectations set by the local sporting bodies and Singaporeans that they play a hasty or even perfunctory game yesterday night?
The female table tennis performance in yesterday’s match is really lacklustre. Feng Tian Wei failed to score against the Japanese despite her newly-minted title as Olympic bronze medallist.
For all the large sum of monies and resources channelled to give our Olympic-hopefuls the best in training, coaches, accommodation and rewards, what we have gotten from the female and Singapore Olympics team from this year’s Olympics games is really unsatisfactory.
I watched the final badminton match of the Olympics yesterday night, a match between the finest with the world No.1 and No. 2 (Lin Dan of China vs Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia) battling all out for the gold medal.
When it came to the third and final game of the match, Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei were at a draw. Lee Chong Wei preserved to the very last minute only to lose 19-21 to Lin Dan.
When I looked at the expression of Lee Chong Wei: that burning desire to win a gold medal for Malaysia as expressed in his unrelentless fight backs against Lin Dan, I realized that this was the look that was lacking in our Olympic (Singapore) team.
When our Singapore team was down by a few points to their opponents in many of the games, they seemed to accept their losing streak in most of the matches which finally led them succumbing to their opponents. I feel they do not seem to have the“drive to excel” mentality of Lee Chong Wei.
Malaysia is so close to a Gold medal yesterday night. Though I am not a Malaysian, I feel proud that Malaysia has its very own local athlete in Lee Chong Wei who fought to the very end to try his very best to win a Gold medal for Malaysia.
I feel the outcry from Singaporeans lamenting that Feng Tian Wei is not really a real-born Singaporean understandable. Though some others said that our immigrants also hailed from China, I think a reason why quite a number of Singaporeans still view China-born Singaporeans as not part of Singaporeans is due to the fact that these new Singaporeans participate in Singapore’s nation-building effort after Singapore became independent in 1965.

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