So we've all heard about what happened to poor old Gao Ning
during the recent Olympics, and the fallout it caused. In the
end though, whos right and whos wrong?
1) Gao Ning
Am really not surprised at the way he has hit out. Which
player does not want to be successful? You could say he was a loser
anyway for getting thrashed by a lower ranked opponent, but what is
certain is that he was made to feel like a loser for the amount of
neglection he has gotten. Imagine coming to Singapore only to
act as a sparring partner for the girls?
2) Liu Guodong
He did a fantastic job at getting the girls into the final, but
unfortunately he had to, or chose to do it at the extent of the
men's team. As a coach he felt he had no choice and I tend to
agree with him. Had he failed with the women, he would have
be deemed as not good enough, a waste of taxpayers money and his
future would be under threat all the same. He felt that he
had to focus on the best chance for getting that medal for
Singapore. Did Chelsea fans get upset with Jose Mourinho for
secuirng results at the expense of entertaining football? They did
not. And so while we can acknowledge that coach liu neglected
the men, we can't say he is not a good coach for Singapore just
because of that.
3) Antony Lee
I am not sure what is expected of him really. He is a
team manager that manages the players and coaches admin affairs, is
he not? He is certainly no expert in table tennis as compared
to the Chinese players and coaches. He was only informed of
the lack of a coach at the very last moment. Is it his job to
tell the coaches how to plan their training schedules or which
player to focus on? Definitely not. If he did he would be
interfering in team and playing matters. Yet now he is deemed
to be the number 1 culprit and is the first one to lose his
job. The most suay guy in my opinion.
4) Lee Bee Wah
Her intentions are well meant. But while she posseses the
typical high handedness of a PAP MP, she certainly lacks the
prudence and discretion we have come to expect of our government as
well. It is well and good to launch an investigation, but she
jumped the gun and sacked Lee way before she got hold of the
facts. She came out in public and spinned a fancy story about
just how bad things are in her organization. She placed a
medal winning coach under the judgement of a coahcing committee
whom we do not even know if they are as qualified as he is.
It is unfortunate that she made a mess out of her good intentions
and as such a public figure, she is getting the flak she
deserves. (whats the matter with Ang Mo Kio MPs anyway?)
So whose fault is it? We Singaporeans love to find the person to
blame. In this case, Antony Lee was an easy scapegoat.
Hes local, not a valuable foreign talent, and the job of a team
manager is easily replaced. He was the perfect fall guy for
Lee Bee Wah to show her authority. Or the coaches? Can we
honestly touch our heart and drive away a man like Liu Guodong for
a reason like this? Or maybe we should replace Gao Ning and Yang Zi
with better mens players who can play on their own without coaches?
Or we could kick out Lee Bee Wah as what many people
want.
The issue is not whos at fault. Its really the
system. If we relaly take a few years to build a
foundation for success, all these problems would have been
addressed in the first place. There will be proper coaching
for both the men's and women's teams, staff who know their roles
and a well prepared training programme to build up towards major
meets like the Olympics.
Trouble is, as I've always said, we go for the quick fix.
We in Singapore are freaking despo just to get a medal. Its
not just in sports. Even in schools, teachers focus on how to
make the top students better so they can win glory for the school,
and neglect those who are slow. We here only want to focus on
what can get us the fastest and best results, and we only recognize
those who are able to do so. And we have done that this
Olympics. At the expense of guys like Gao Ning and Antony Lee
unfortunately, that is. For those of you who watch EPL
football, we, Singapore, are no different from Chelsea
actually.