QUESTION TIME Although we lost our best chances for an Olympic gold last week, the consolation was the biggest medal haul so far at the games with four silver and one bronze. But, sadly the outlook for a future gold is the bleakest so far, a reflection of the poor state of sports in our country, and lack of coordinated effort to improve our status as a sporting nation.

The first to achieve a silver in the Rio games was the diving pair of Pandelela Rinong Pamg and Cheong Jun Hoong in the women’s 10m synchronised platform. It was a fantastic performance by the duo, losing out to the strong Chinese in the event.

Malaysia did not have a long heritage in diving until the arrival of Pandelela on the scene, who unexpectedly stormed into a bronze medal victory in the 2012 London Olympics at the women’s individual 10m platform event.

Her achievements and the tireless efforts of the diving coaches have nurtured new talents in diving such as her partner in the medal-winning performance, Jun Hoong. The other is Nur Dhabitah Sabri who qualified for the final event of the 10m platform dive together with Pandelela. This time, Pandelela - who won bronze in this event in 2012 - was unfortunate and came in at 11, with Nur Dhabitah bettering her at 9th place. Malaysia had the distinction of having two contestants in the final, the other two countries being China and Canada.

In cycling, Azizulhasni Awang did the country proud in Rio by getting a bronze, Malaysia’s first ever in cycling, at the men’s keirin event. As in diving, in 2012, this is new ground for Malaysia, achieving major honours in an event which Malaysia was not noted for. That does make his achievement all the more commendable.

At the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, badminton was admitted as a sport with men’s and women’s singles and doubles - four events. Mixed doubles debuted in 1996. Hopes were high that with badminton in the Olympics we will get our first medal - possibly gold.

Badminton gave us our first Olympic medal but not gold way back in 1992, 28 years after we began participating in the Olympics from 1964 - a bronze in the doubles by the Sidek brothers, Razif and Jailani. Hopes had been high that this top doubles pair could bring back a gold but it was not to be. Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock came closer to that elusive gold with a silver at Atlanta in 1996. Another Sidek, Rashid, took bronze, the first individual medal for Malaysia in badminton the same year.

There was a drought of medals in 2000 and 2004 and then in Beijing in 2008, along came Lee Chong Wei. Again, we were expecting gold but he was defeated in the finals by Lin Dan in 2008 and then again in the finals in 2012 by the same man - his nemesis, they said...