Darence Chan's

THE RISE & FALL OF MALAYSIAN BADMINTON

Credit - Antony Stanley (Creative Commons)

Malaysia, an island nation located in the heart of Southeast Asia, is home to some of the world’s friendliest people, a global cultural melting pot and the world’s tallest Twin Towers - the Petronas Twin Towers. It is also regarded as a sporting nation, with success being achieved at the international stage in sports such as track cycling and field hockey. However, no other sport can be matched when compared to its status and reputation of badminton within the country. Malaysia, regarded as a regional powerhouse within the sport, has historically achieved major

Credit - Jutta M. Jenning (Creative Commons)

success, such as the infamous 1992 Thomas Cup triumph from the Sidek brothers and Lee Chong Wei’s three successive Olympic silver medals in the men’s singles discipline from 2008 to 2016. However recently, the country has hit a recession in terms of its performance on court, such as the disappointing performance at this year’s Malaysia Open in January, where no single representative from the host nation made it into the semifinals. Find out in this interactive documentary what were the root causes that led to this stage, and what are the potential solutions to getting Malaysia back on track.