Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

At Your ServiceThe ministry has initiated some community sports-related programmes suchas Rakan Muda, Community Sports Centres, Talent Identification Programmes,National Women’s Games, National Sports and Fitness Convention, and CommunitySports League.The establishment of the Cabinet Committee for Sports chaired by Deputy PrimeMinister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, which involves 10 ministries, underlines theGovernment’s seriousness in developing sports. The current focus is in the eightcore sports — football, hockey, badminton, squash, bowling, gymnastics, aquaticsand athletics. We are reaching out to all bases to seek a large pool of athletes inall sports.The Road to London 2012 programmewill focus on a few selected sports namelybadminton, cycling, diving and archery.Our athletes are training hard to achieveMalaysia’s first gold in the Olympics. Thiswould be history in the making for us.Malaysia has excelled in sports in the past. No doubt we can do better but wemust acknowledge those who have trained and worked hard in making Malaysiaproud. Malaysian contingents have been participating in the Olympic Games since1956. In Athens in 2004, Malaysia participated in 11 types of sports. In Beijing2008, the Malaysian contingent won a silver medal in badminton through DatukLee Chong Wei.Malaysia has made great strides in the Asian Games as well. In the Doha 2006 AsianGames, Malaysia achieved a total of 42 medals, surpassing its achievement in Busanin 2002. It was our best showing in the Asian Games since 1966.In the 1994 Commonwealth Games, through weightlifting and badminton, theMalaysian team made the nation proud by winning seven medals comprising twogolds, three silvers and two bronzes. Six of the medals were from badminton andone from weightlifting. The Kuala Lumpur 1998 Commonwealth Games createdhistory when Malaysia finished fourth out of 68 participating countries. Malaysiawon 10 gold medals and 36 medals in total. The South-East Asia Games held every134