SO, Malaysia will soon have a national ski team. They have been training abroad in hopes of making the cut so they can fly the national flag at upcoming competitions.
We know what you’re thinking. You’re probably sniggering: “What for? Malaysia got no snow lah!”
Yeah, yeah, everyone knows that. Ski Malaysia’s athlete Othman Mirzan knows that too but wants to give it a try anyway.
Othman, the grandson of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, wants Malaysia to have a national ski team for several reasons.
There’s the selfish reason of wanting to compete in his chosen sport under his country’s banner. Then, there’s the broader, more idealistic motivation to make his country proud.
“When was the last time we were really proud of Malaysia, like really proud? I mean, really proud to your core and happy to say ‘I am Malaysian’? For me, the last time was when we sent a man up to space [in October 2007]. I turned around to everyone and said, ‘That’s my country!’. But since then, I haven’t had anything to shout and gloat about.
“Skiing is my only feasible way of doing that right now, and I’m taking that opportunity,” Othman remarks.
For Othman – a student at the University of Colorado Boulder – skiing has long been his passion. He was introduced to the sport years ago, and was hooked on it.
"I just loved it. I love the speed. I love the idea of the control you can get. There is no feeling like it. Even when you fall, you regret it for a while but you get back up and start again."
The 20-year-old is one of the three athletes of Ski Malaysia, alongside his sister Khadijah, 19, and Penang-born Jeffrey Webb, 16.
Founded in 2013, Ski Malaysia is the association for all forms of alpine and Nordic sport, catering to enthusiasts and competitors. The association’s president is Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin, the head of SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd, while its patron is none other than Dr M.
What for?
We asked Othman the obvious question: why would Malaysia need a ski team?
“How crazy is it that we’ve never been to the Winter Olympics? We’ve sent a man to space, yet we can’t send a national team to the Winter Olympic Games,” he says.
Malaysia has long participated in the Summer Olympics but has never had an athlete at the Winter Olympic Games. Our involvement in winter sports has been fleeting at best.
Malaysia has never been to the Winter Olympics but the Ski Malaysia team hopes to make it to the 2018 Games. Mexico was the first tropical county to participate in the Winter Olympics in 1928 for a bobsleigh entry and the Philippines was the first nation to send two Alpine skiers to the 1972 games in Japan.
Malaysia, however, has been represented at previous Asian Winter Games. In 2011, two Malaysian figure skaters competed and were ranked 13th and 15th. Prior to that, Malaysia sent an ice hockey team to the 2007 Asian Winter Games that finished at 8th place.
According to Othman, the association has a seven-year plan to send Malaysian alpine skiers to compete at events such as the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St Moritz, the Asian Winter Games in Japan in 2017 and the 2016 Youth Olympic Games in Norway.
What he is excited about is seeing Malaysia represented at these large winter sporting events. The question remains, will Malaysians rally behind a sport that seems so removed from what people are familiar with?
Badminton and football have large followings in Malaysia, even if the athletes may not always win medals or qualify for the big games. Contrast that with squash, where Datuk Nicol David has been at the top of the women’s game for a long while. Still, squash does not have the kind of public support that badminton sees.
Also, skiing is seen as an elitist sport that only rich people can afford. Othman concedes that skiing will not be able to shake that perception.
He retorts: “Well, didn’t we also consider going to space ‘atas’? It was ridiculous yes, but at the end of the day, we live in a ridiculous Malaysia. At the same time, we love our car races and we love our skiing.”
He, however, does not believe that Malaysians will dismiss skiing so easily.
“I don’t think Malaysian people will dismiss a sport on that basis because it takes a lot to get there. I don’t think people will look at it as, ‘Oh it’s just for these people’ cos you have to work hard to get there. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been born into it. Just because you have the finances for it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to do it.”
How the team will make it
For now, Othman, Khadijah and Webb are training in the US whilst attending school.
Othman notes that it is difficult to get the team together to practise. Anyway, team practice may not be absolutely essential.
“Skiing is an individual sport. It’s you against the mountain.”
Currently, the association is in the midst of securing funding from corporate sponsors and the necessary paperwork in order to officially compete under the Malaysian flag.
Crunching the numbers, Othman estimates that it will cost roughly RM350,000 a year for the entire team to qualify at its highest level, which works out to around RM3 million for seven years.
Coaching and travel expenses alone would take up most of the costs.
“The ringgit isn’t very strong. Everything in skiing is done pretty much in the US dollar or euro because that’s where all the companies are based.
“For the American or European kids, it’s not as expensive, but for us here, the value is crazy so that’s why sponsors and the backing of the government are so important. Without that, we’d have no chance,” says Othman.
Ski Malaysia has already managed to secure a partnership with Genting Resort Secret Garden in Beijing, China. The ski association meanwhile is expected to be officially launched on Aug 3.
It is still early days for the association and for the athletes’ skiing career, but they are no stranger to hurdles.
“The most difficult thing about alpine skiing is the cold mornings. It really sucks the will out of you, because, you have to be mentally strong, and mentally tough,” says Othman.
“You wake up in the morning and you open the door and your face freezes. You get frostbite. Keeping going is the hardest thing.”
This article first appeared in #e, digitaledge Weekly, on August 3 - 9, 2015.