[PHOTOS] All The Malaysian Athletes Who Have Qualified For The Tokyo Olympics
Let the games begin!
By Ahmad Hamizan @ Mike Miz — 02 Jul 2021, 10:48 AM — Updated over 3 years ago
The 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan from 23 July to 8 August 2021
The Olympics were originally due to take place in 2020 but were postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Ever since the first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, it has only been disrupted three times before. The first time it happened was in 1916 due to the First World War, and then during the Second World War in 1940 and 1944, when they were cancelled altogether.
Despite this postponement, the upcoming games will still be referred to by its original name for marketing purposes, and it will still show "Tokyo 2020" on all of the winner medals.
While no international fans are allowed to travel to attend Tokyo 2020, not everyone in Japan is onboard with the idea of having the Olympics this year amidst the pandemic
Japan's borders are still closed to foreigners due to COVID-19 restrictions, so only athletes and their delegations are allowed to enter the country. In fact, Tokyo is still currently under a state of emergency until 11 July, and local authorities will only decide if local fans can attend after the emergency ends.
According to a nationwide survey conducted by the leading Asahi Shimbun newspaper, an overwhelming 83% said the Tokyo 2020 Olympics should be postponed or cancelled. This was affirmed by other surveys conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun (59%), TBS News (65%), and the Kyodo News Agency (70%).
This is partly down to concerns that games would lead to a new "Olympic" strain of the coronavirus, which has been labelled potentially "a huge tragedy and would be a target of criticism, even for 100 years".
Tokyo 2020 will see four new sports being contested for the first time
The four new sports are Surfing, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, and Karate.
The inclusion of these four new sports means that Tokyo 2020 will have more sports in competition than ever before.
Other new inclusions for this edition include Baseball & Softball, which was previously contested between 1992 - 2008, 3-on-3 Basketball under the Basketball category, and Freestyle BMX under Cycling.
A total of 30 Malaysian athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics so far. They are competing in 10 different sports categories.
Shooting - Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi
Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi, women's individual 50m rifle three-position.
Image via Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi (Facebook)
Gymnastics - Farah Ann Abdul Hadi & Jeremiah Loo Phay Xing
Jeremiah Loo Phay Xing, men's individual all-around (artistic).
Image via Bernama/The Malaysian Reserve
Diving - Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Ng Yan Yee, Cheong Jun Hoong, Leong Mun Yee & Pandalela Rinong
From left: Pandalela Rinong, women's individual 10m platform and women's synchronised 10m platform and Leong Mun Yee, women's synchronised 10m platform.
Image via New Straits Times
