You have shown to all Malaysians what guts and determination can get you to the top of your chosen path.
The London Squash Classic may not be of the same prestige as the world championship or the British Open but the quality of the opponents that you beat enroute to the championship is already an achievement worthy of going into the annals of squash history in Malaysia ranking after the heroics of the greatest squash player Malaysia has produced, the great Nicol David.
And considering that you had an accident 2 years ago that almost ended your playing career.
And as you aptly put it in your posting on Insta, challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
You are well aware and probably have been advised through and through that no one factor takes an athlete to the next level.
It is a combination of factors.
An athlete’s willingness to suffer, his or her comfort with being uncomfortable, is often a strong determinant upon whether they reach their potential, or instead become another one of those “should have, could have, would have” players.
No one knows that elite athletes we see on television have all suffered.
These athletes have practiced and toiled for long hours, day after day, when no one was watching.
Time and again, when they wanted to quit, they did one more repetition, ran one more lap, and trained a few minutes longer.
They gave up time with friends and family to pursue their craft.
They make it look easy because of the thousands of hours that they made it hard on themselves.
They willingly made themselves uncomfortable.
They suffered because they knew that they had to in order to succeed.
Many do not ever achieve their true potential because the thought of suffering and discomfort frightens them.
Many a times, we read of cases when a coach got tough, the players just backed off.
When they encountered adversity, their parents stepped in and intervened, instead of using it as a teachable moment.
When given the choice of whether to embrace suffering, or pull back, these athletes often chose the easy path.
That is why they will not make it.
Many have been coddled by their parents and protected from failure.
The true vision of a champion is someone bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching.
You are aware that Nicol David became the best player in the world, not only because she had talent and great coaching, but because she was willing to suffer more than her competitors.
Next for you is to follow the path of Nicol David.
Stay and train overseas.
Do not contemplate, no matter what is offered, to stay and train in this country.
Nicol David did it. Rocketman did it.
Those who stayed and trained in the country rarely make it.
Lee Chong Wei is probably the exception.
If you want to contribute back to the country, do it after your playing days are over, just like Nicol David.
Not when you are in your prime.
Sport is a mirror of society, and the problems of society are also reflected in sport.
While corruption in sport is not new, the recent evidences of poor governance and corruption scandals threatens to undermine all the joy that sport brings and the good that it can do.
It is evident to all, that the pace of building integrity in sport has been too slow.
Sports in Malaysia have morphed into a system of rampant, systemic and deep-rooted corruption which allows most of the sporting associations to operate without any effective external oversight.
It has made sports become a bit less beautiful.
FLK is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
