Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying came to the Tokyo Olympic Games with high hopes and golden expectations. Nevertheless, after losing to Mark Lamsfus/Isabel Herttrich of Germany 12-21, 15-21 on Sunday, their hope of advancing to the knockout stage was pretty much over.
Online haters quickly took to social media to start bashing Chan/Goh after the loss. That prompted Malaysia’s badminton legend and Chef de Mission (CDM) for the Tokyo Olympic Games Lee Chong Wei, and former World No. 1 men’s doubles player, Koo Kien Keat to stand up and voice their support for Chan/Goh by posting messages below on their respective social media accounts:
Lee Chong Wei
“I’ve been dismayed by the numbers of online comments abusing our badminton players when they lost. As a former teammate, I felt so much for them.
All I want to say is I know these players. They went to court with only one aim, one goal. To win the game for the flag on the chest, to make us proud. Tiada athlete yang mau kalah. Tetapi itu lah kenyataan, setiap perlawanan setiap game, pasti ada 1 yang kalah, 1 yang menang. Sometimes it is just not your day. Yang layan depan TV pun dah heart attack and kecewa, apalah lagi pemain dalam gelanggang? Shouldn’t we support them on?
No one wants to go in court and lose. These players brought you joy before. Don’t mock and desert them when they lost a game.
Support them. Support MALAYSIA.
Kita jaga kita.
Note: PS Chan 陈炳橓 Goh Liu Ying 吴柳莹 Juniors, I’m proud of you. Real Malaysians are proud of you
你们的努力和辛苦身为运动员的我特别感同深受，在场上尽力而为，问心无愧就够了，还有最后一场，就好好的享受东京奥运的舞台，华丽转身。你们赢球有我陪你，你们输了我也在！- 团长李宗伟
奥运结束，生活才刚开始呢！”
Koo Kien Keat
“I was an Olympian, and I knew that qualified to Olympic Games wasn’t easy. Lots of dedication and hard work need to be sacrificed. Proud to see Malaysia players participate in the highest level of the sport. 4 years preparation to fight for the dream, how many players can insist on it?
Win or lose doesn’t matter anymore, you guys did very well as a ‘veteran olympian’ and made us proud. All the best for the last match.
PS Chan 陈炳橓 / Goh Liu Ying 吴柳莹
🇲🇾🏆
参加奥运是所有选手的梦想，但要晋级奥运不是想象中那么容易，很多背后辛苦的付出没有人看到。无论奥运赛场的输赢，四年的努力不会是白费的，有多少运动员可以在这四年里坚持下去呢？
为你们的表现感到自豪，最后一场比赛，加油💪🏻”
Frankly, no one wants to lose in any tournaments especially in Olympics. It takes more than players themselves in order to achieve good results in any sport. Even with the top supporting team and elite players, winning an Olympics gold still hasn’t been all that realistic in many sports.
One good example was the USA basketball team. The total salaries for all players in the USA basketball team added up to roughly USD $2.51 billion, as Kevin Durant leading the way with about USD $38 million for the 2020-21 NBA season, followed by Khris Middleton with roughly USD $31.6 million and Damian Lillard with about USD $30.2 million.
Social media and some current NBA players didn’t hold back from Team USA Basketball after their 76-83 loss to France in the first group stage on Sunday.
Allez les Bleus!!!!
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 25, 2021
KD next Olympics: pic.twitter.com/qEDXfvBLbE
— SixersCharlie (@Sixers_Charlie) July 25, 2021
— :/ (@YannB24) July 25, 2021
Malaysia’s women’s doubles pair, Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean also suffered their second group stage defeat on Sunday, losing to No. 1 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota 21-17, 15-21, 8-21.
Both Fukushima/Hirota started attacking Lee early in the third set, able to widen the gap by forcing Lee to make mistakes to wrap up their second Group A match. The Japanese are currently leading Group A with two victories.
