100 Malaysians, 100 Milestones – Our LSA100 Icon of the Year is Datuk Nicol David, who is currently deep in her philanthropy era. Through her foundation, the Nicol David Organisation — and the support of her team — she is on a long-term mission to ingrain sport as a means for self-development and growth.
When does an icon cease to be an icon? The answer, as I approach Datuk Nicol David in the bustle of the studio, is: never. There is probably never going to be a moment when I watch the Nicol David and not think about the fact that she’d held the World No. 1 ranking for 108 months straight, all throughout the mid-2000s and 2010s. Arguably the greatest female squash player of all time, Nicol has long been our country’s pride and joy when it comes to sport — and even as I gush about her achievements to her, her smile is unassuming and kind.
“Yeah, it was an interesting journey,” she muses. “I never thought I would get that long at the top also. But my coach was really supportive. She was a former top player herself in the Women’s World Tour.”
Following her retirement from 2019, Nicol quickly got to work on her next move — and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple lockdowns and other worldly obstacles, she and her philanthropy partner‐in-crime Mariana de Reyes sparked the beginnings of the Nicol David Organisation.
“It was always in the back of my mind when I was about to retire, that I wanted a foundation,” Nicol tells me. “I knew very clearly that I needed to give back in some ways. I mean, sport has given me so much, my whole career. So, I thought, why not give that back?”
The Nicol David Organisation (NDO) has been active for almost four years today, but this year saw the most achievements thus far. Just recently, the NDO hosted its first sports and mental health summit in KL. On top of that, the NDO also introduced the Positive Play (+Play) programme this year, through which they reached over 1,000 children in Malaysian public schools.
Nicol’s sportswoman-to-philanthropy pipeline felt natural to her, but not in the way one might think. The NDO just puts as much, if not more, emphasis on mental health as it does on movement and sport. Nicol has always been a true and vocal advocate of mental health; after all, nobody can achieve what she had without a strong mental fortitude.
“Of course we all want everything to just be excellent straight after I retired, and everybody needs to match up to where I am, but it’s not possible,” she muses, laughing. “Because even anywhere else in the world — not just in squash — any athlete in any sport will find it difficult to do what I’ve done. So, I always like to remind people to take that comparison away and just focus on the athletes right now. I think we have to start focusing on encouraging them a bit more, giving them the space to learn that if they do fall, they need to. Positive reinforcement is so important, so we need to encourage them to learn from those moments where they are down and how they can come back stronger.”
How would you describe the past year for you?
The whole year has just been a whirlwind of amazing things happening all at once. And I think it’s hard to grasp what has happened because we — both Mariana and myself — have just been non-stop since January and up to now. We’ve just seen that we created something so much bigger than we ever expected. Having to host a sports and mental health summit not long ago, then the Ibu Legend summit for our mothers programme, and creating a new programme where we are doing an outreach programme. That one reached over 1,000 children in public schools with the impact that we have created with Positive Play. It’s just been crazy. So, to sum it up, I think I have had an amazing year. I for one feel so proud that we’ve come this far and we’ve grown so much in just this one year.
Tell us a little bit more about the things you’ve done, especially with Positive Play and the outreach programme, and everything else.
For context, we have three pillars now that we work in the Nicol David Organisation. The first is our children’s programme, which is Little Legends, and we work with children that are low to mid income who come to NDO for an after-school programme. We have squash training and English classes. And we have about 150 kids there that are ages from eight to eleven years old.
And the second pillar is our family pillar, where we have our moms’ programme, Ibu Legends. And we focus on giving them mental health support and financial literacy education, and also free medical check-ups to look after their well-being. We currently have 75 mothers in the program and after those two pillars, we decided to do an outreach programme. And that’s our Positive Play programme that we launched this year in April. It’s a combination of physical activity and positive psychology combined. It’s a four-week intervention where we go into schools, and we do once a week a class after school where it’s 45 minutes of physical activity like speed, movement, agility and strength, and the other half is positive psychology where we teach them thinking positive, get gratitude, breathing techniques and making the right choices.
And after that four-week intervention, we’ve seen these kids really grow and become confident. We see the progress of them being just so much happier, moving and being active. This is the kids’ programme where we want to target the kids that don’t play sports or the ones that really need the movement. They realise that they can be active without playing a sport and that’s the idea, like, how are we going to get kids to play again in schools? And to have the tools to manage their stress or if they are going through tough moments, even just a little breathing technique might help. So, through the Positive Play programme we are going to cover 38 schools this year. So far, we have 34 schools and reached over 1,100 kids. It’s just amazing. It’s a big move for us in terms of what we want to do for the future with NDO, and it’s only going to get bigger.
What were your initial goals when you first started it? Do you think you’ve achieved them?
We have definitely surpassed what we have ever imagined possible, because when we initially started, we thought it would be just the children. But when you start working with children, you realise the ecosystem around them is so important and you want to help everyone around as well, to make sure that child is secure and safe and is looked after well. When that happened, we went straight to the family first, so we have the moms to begin with, and next year hopefully the dads as well. Then when we saw it in a wider perspective, we couldn’t just wait for it to happen in terms of how are we going to reach more, because our facility can only cater to 200 kids max. Now that has just shifted into this whole dimension that we can reach almost all of Malaysia one day, hopefully. That’s the dream that I never thought would be possible, but it’s looking like there’s a real light at the end of the tunnel.
How would you say your experience as an athlete, or in the sports industry, prepared you for what you do with the NDO today? Or rather, how does your journey play a part in it, I suppose?
Being an athlete has helped me in a way that I never thought it would. Because you do everything as an athlete thinking that it’s all you know. And then the moment I had to transition and to think about something else, it was very scary. But having a support system, like Mariana, who can see the potential that I have in terms of, you know. I’ve been at the top of the world, and so I can use all the values that sport had to offer, the talents that I have, the experiences I gained, and bring it forward to a new phase of life, and that’s taking on the foundation. Leading the team, managing people… is very difficult.
When you’re training in sport, your mentality is kind of only to myself. So, to switch it around is always very different. I had to learn that as I was going through the last three years, but as time went by, I learned a lot from Mariana. I learned a lot from the people I meet, all the great leaders that run organisations… you pick their brains on how it works. Learning how to manage people is harder for me, but in the process, I’m getting to be a bit more confident in knowing that I have to sometimes tell people what to do, it’s just part of the job. So, I’m breaking through that more and it’s getting clearer. So, a great experience but still a lot to learn. It’s a fun journey to discover what I’m capable of, and to now bring it to where it is.
I mean, you have your doubts, you know? You always second guess whether you can do it because people will look at you as an athlete, so would they take me seriously? They may just respect me as the athlete that I am, who has achieved everything, but they may not see that I could contribute to what I’m doing. And having that trust that I just need to just do it, and people would then have to see… the proof is in the pudding, right? People will start trusting that Nicol is doing so much more than just being an athlete.
How did you kind of decide that this is what you want to do? What was the big push?
It was always in the back of my mind when I was about to retire, that I wanted a foundation. I knew very clearly that I needed to give back in some ways. The first thing I wanted to do was to put a foundation together, but I just really didn’t know how to do it. I wanted to use sport and education as well, and that naturally evolved to mental health and well-being. So, everything was connected. I mean, sport has given me so much, my whole career. So, I thought, why not give that back?
When I finally retired, I wanted to set everything up. I had Mariana, who had 10 years of corporate experience to come in to support me with how we can build that foundation and structure from the ground up. And then there were two more years because it was COVID-19, so that gave me a chance to breathe after retirement. We did the research, we’ve done focus groups and all these things that need to be done before it’s a company. There was a lot of groundwork that needed to be done before everything was in place. And then it was very clear that sponsors and funders who came in knew where we were going. It was a very solid programme that they could support and know that there is a future. Because it’s not easy to convince funders when you don’t have something concrete. The name doesn’t carry enough weight. Maybe it just helps to open some doors, but how are you going to make sure that they stay in, right?
I know you place a lot of importance on mental health. Is that something you’ve always carried with you from your days in training as an athlete, something that you still prioritise?
Yeah, definitely. That was the best thing that really helped me through my whole career, which was the learning of positive psychology and having mental training with my sports psychologist. Understanding that having your mind ready for challenges, being able to see things in a positive light… it helps you to perform or to be better in your day-to-day. And I thought that if I could get that at a young age, why not help others do the same in a daily practice? You don’t have to wait for something to happen or to bring yourself down to then only try to figure out what to do. Why not give the tools beforehand? I always felt that if we could teach younger kids the tools to help them with their mind, and getting them in the right direction… it helps them to come out of that rut of just the negative self-talk or the distraction that is around them. That was always something that was part of me.
And sport is something that pulls people out and brings the good chemicals into your mind to lift you up or calm you down. So, I think it’s always a package deal. So, whatever we do in the foundation, whether it’s in the schools or in our foundation or with the mothers, everyone is happy. Everyone is enjoying being in the environment because we all have that same culture, which is positive reinforcement, being encouraging, supporting one another. And that’s what I want, a positive future for the next generation.
Pivoting into the sports industry in Malaysia right now, what would you like to see improve or change here? Especially considering you are working with the young kids of today.
I believe that sport in Malaysia is really booming in many ways. Of course we all want everything to just be excellent straight after I retired, and everybody needs to match up to where I am, but it’s not possible. Because even anywhere else in the world — not just in squash — any athlete in any sport will find it difficult to do what I’ve done. So, I always like to remind people to take that comparison away and just focus on the athletes right now. What they’re doing is amazing. I mean, Thinaah and Pearly heading to World No. 1s and winning another title, you know. Our badminton players, our weightlifters, our divers. So many athletes who are just really showing that Malaysia really is striving in their own space.
I think we have to start focusing on encouraging them a bit more, giving them the space to learn that if they do fall, they need to. It’s the expectations that are very high for our athletes. And if they get there, it’s great. But now, the support needs to come in the consistency to prolong their reign or their performance. That’s what we need to focus on. Not the one-off wins, but how we can keep them in the right frame of mind to consistently take them through those next steps? Those are the hardest steps to take, the consistency to keep doing well afterwards. Positive reinforcement is so important, so we need to encourage them to learn from those moments where they are down and how they can come back stronger.
What was that like for you back then, I mean, to keep at that — to be at the top and everything? Because what you’ve achieved has just been amazing.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was an interesting journey. I never thought I would get that long at the top also. But my coach was really supportive. She was a former top player herself in the Women’s World Tour. And she knew exactly how to manage me in the sense of, how can she motivate me to keep improving in certain areas? All the small details, we were always picking on things to learn, to get better. And the minute those things were better, my performance was only going to get results. So, we never thought of the results. It was all purely about performance.
We did have goals, like, where to peak, the big world championships or certain tournaments in the year. But if we only focused on winning and getting the results, I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. Because the performance will make the results come. So, we just focused on that, going in each day and focusing on what I needed to perform, and that would take me through the match. And every year, we kept improving. After nine years at No. 1, you don’t realise… but you had those moments of being low, and she would bring the right team around me. Whether it was a physical trainer, a sports psychologist, to make sure that it was all in the right place. She was pretty much the mastermind on how to keep me on that track. And not many coaches have that innate skill to know what is good for their athlete. She just made a conscious effort to do that.
To wrap up, what is one important lesson that you’ve learned in the past year?
I would say the most important lesson I’ve learned would be to just trust in myself. I think I underestimate what I can do because I’m so used to being in my comfort zone — my comfort zone being sport — but I’m always out of my comfort zone when I’m in my foundation. Everything is out of my comfort zone so I think I’m just trusting myself.
editor-in-chief MARTIN TEO | creative direction MARO COLLECTIVE (MODULA LOKO STUDIO) | interview PUTERI YASMIN SURAYA | editorial team RONN TAN & MALLIE MARAN | photography MICHELE YONG | set design BRENDAN TEE | videography POR JIA JUN & STANLEY LOH | hair & makeup BERRY LOW & CHEE ING | styled by JONATHAN LIANG | jewellery CARTIER | wardrobe DAYJOB, EL BY ELLIE LIM, KHOON HOOI, KIT WOO
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Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
