The success of the athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics were partly due to the policies of the government under Umno/BN, which helped to develop the sports industry in the country, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said.

"Umno as a political party is the core and backbone that fights for government policies, and one of the important branches of our country's development as a peaceful, prosperous country is sports.

"Therefore, as the backbone of the country's leadership, anyone who succeeds under the banner of policies spearheaded by Umno and BN, that success is more or less due to our policies," Najib said.

The prime minister said this at Umno's appreciation ceremony for the athletes at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur today.

That is why, Najib said, Umno felt it was appropriate that the party holds a ceremony in appreciation of the athletes who represented Malaysia in the Olympics and Paralympics this year.

The Olympics and Paralympics took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last month, from which the athletes took home a total of nine medals.

The Paralympics athletes garnered three gold medals and one bronze while the Olympics athletes bagged four silver medals and one bronze medal.

At the ceremony today, the prime minister awarded the gold medalists RM30,000, the silver medalists RM20,000 and the bronze medalists RM10,000.

In his speech, Najib said sports was a unifying factor and it is something popular with the rakyat.

"The more we develop sports in the country, the more positive the country's sentiment and mood is," he said.

He cited the example of his tweets about sports, saying that they usually get a lot of response.

"But if I tweet about politics, (the response is) not as much," he joked.

The performance of the athletes in the Olympics and Paralympics this year were the best that Malaysia has ever delivered.