Rexy Ronald Mainaky, a former Indonesian men’s doubles badminton champion, commonly known as Rexy, won the Olympic gold in Atlanta 1996 with Ricky Subagja. As a Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaching director, Rexy feels that four out of five Malaysian badminton representatives have a good chance of winning medals at the Paris Olympics. They are men’s singles Lee Zii Jia, men’s double pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei. While Goh Jin Wei, women’s singles will face a challenging path in Paris compared to her teammates due to the physical issues stemming from 2019 colectomy surgery caused by stomach ailment.
“Everyone knows, the main topic of discussion is and will be, from the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) right up the Ministry of Youth and Sports, is to hear the National anthem (Negaraku) being played on the Olympic podium for the gold medal winner.
“If we succeed, everybody will be happy, if we fail, I will be the one facing the brunt (responsibility). Right now, preparations are progressing well with the support and assistance of the National Sports Council (NSC) and Road to Gold program (RTG), I am satisfied,” he told reporters during a press conference at the ABM.
Rexy acknowledged that while winning the elusive gold is the ultimate goal, he wants to avoid placing excessive pressure on the players.
“Everyone knows that we are trying to win gold. But we can’t afford to want it too badly or we might end up missing out,” Rexy emphasized. “As long as the players know what they want, then that’s good enough.”
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