Rousing welcome at KL Int'l Airport greets Malaysian Olympians

SEPANG — Over 1,000 Malaysians gathered at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday (Aug 24) to welcome home the national contingent returning from the recently-concluded Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Some held up banners, other carried posters and waved mini versions of the Jalur Gemilang at the Bunga Raya Complex in anticipation of the athletes’ arrival who were scheduled to land at 1.30pm.

Among those eager to meet the returning Olympians is Wong Mew Chew, the wife of silver medallist Lee Chong Wei, and their two children.

Other dignitaries waiting here are Prime Minister Najib Razak, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim.

Mr Khairy, in a press conference later, praised the Malaysian contingent for the five medals they won, which he said was one of the best medal hauls by Malaysian athletes in the country’s Olympic history. Malaysia won four silver and one bronze in the Rio Olympics.

Three silver medals were contributed by Lee in the men’s singles badminton, by the badminton mixed doubles pair Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon, as well as by the badminton men’s doubles pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.

Divers Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong won a silver in the women’s synchronised 10m platform diving, while cyclist Azizulhasni Awang scored bronze in the men’s keirin.

Mr Khairy pointed out that Malaysia’s five medals put the country second to Thailand in the Asean region as the country with highest medal tally in the Rio Olympics.

“I’m proud because we managed to get five medals, number two just behind Thailand with six. In that sense, it was a really good representation of medals.

Mr Khairy also said the Malaysian contingent’s performance was “extraordinary” despite the squad being among the smaller ones which participated in Brazil.

“And when you talk about gold medal, we were so, so close. But in terms of number of medals, we couldn’t have asked more,” he told reporters.

“I see from the athletes’ achievements, the percentage compared to the size of the contingent.

“Our contingent has 32 athletes but we won five, the percentage breakdown is 25 per cent. This is a high percentage compared to other countries,” he added.

Mr Khairy said moving on, Malaysia would focus on its achievements in Rio as a benchmark to further improve the squad and to gear up for a gold medal in Tokyo 2020.

He also said none of the athletes he spoke to during the Olympics in Rio were focused on the incentives provided and simply said they were doing it for the country.

“I was in Rio and none of the athletes talked about incentives. When I met them, none of them asked about it or mentioned if we need extra incentive.

“There was this incident was between me and Chong Wei. I asked him before doubles final if we want to increase incentive. He said no need, we are doing this for country. It was the best ever performance. The athletes never did it for money,” he explained. MALAY MAIL ONLINE