The Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports set a medal target for the 33rd SEA Games but did not specify the number of gold medals. This made Malaysian sports experts upset.
Sports science expert Dr. Ahmad Fadzlee Ahmad Idriss opposes the move and stresses the importance of setting clear goals for high-performance sports.
He shared: "I have to say that I do not agree with this method. Setting goals is very important for athletes. We need to set clear goals to know what we are striving for. When setting goals, you must set high goals.
If the goal is only to win a medal, they may only be satisfied with reaching the semi-finals. This applies to all aspects of life. A climber towards Mount Everest will clearly aim to conquer the top of the mountain.
These are athletes with high achievements, mainly funded by the government, who have trained for two years to prepare for the SEA Games. They are carrying the hope of the country.
You have to remember that this is just the SEA Games, only a few countries are participating, not the Asian Games or the Olympics. This is where we should strive to get more gold.
Minister of Youth and Sports Hannah Yeoh has repeatedly said that the reason for using a colorless medal target system is to reduce pressure on athletes.
She added that this decision was made based on the recommendation of Japan's Nippon University of Sports Sciences.
"No one is forced to become a high-performance athlete. Everyone chooses to be a high-performance athlete. They understand the level of competition and the pressure that comes with it. That is an indispensable part of an excellent athlete, added Dr. Ahmad Fadzlee Ahmad Idriss.
Under the leadership of Hannah, this system was first deployed at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games - held in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic - where Malaysia aims to win 27 medals.
The Malaysian sports delegation won a total of 32 medals, including six gold medals, eight silver medals and 18 bronze medals.
However, this figure is still lower than the team's performance at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, where Malaysia won 7 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 16 bronze medals.
Famous sports analyst Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli has been determined to attack this system since the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
He said: "I'm too tired to talk about this. Are we teaching athletes to be afraid of pressure? After all, this is just a SEA Games.
As I said before, athletes need to have clear goals to strive for. If we want to talk about pressure, even students are under pressure when taking the exam but still try to get eight, nine or ten points. There's nothing wrong with that.
Malaysia had its worst result at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia. They are seventh out of just 11 countries on the medal rankings with 34 gold medals, 45 silver medals and 96 bronze medals, so they have failed to achieve the goal of 40 gold medals set for them at the time.
At the 33rd SEA Games, Malaysia will send a very large force of 1,166 athletes to compete in 50 events.
In response to criticism from experts, the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports is expected to soon announce a specific target of how many gold medals the team will win in the coming time.
