Medal winners from several multi-sports events this year, and Olympians, are set to liven up this year’s Merdeka Day parade.
As Malaysia celebrates its 65th independence anniversary from British rule on Aug 31, some 40-odd national athletes, who competed in this year’s SEA Games in Hanoi, 11th Asean Para Games in Surakarta and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will feature in the parade at Dataran Merdeka.
The Malaysian contingent secured 39 gold medals at the SEA Games, while the para-athletes contributed 36 gold medals in Indonesia. The Malaysian team returned from Birmingham with seven gold medals – surpassing its six-gold medal target.
On Aug 2, Twentytwo13 revealed the possibility of Malaysian Olympians being part of the parade.
That was after representatives from the Malaysia Olympian Association met Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu to discuss the suggestion made by former hockey international and Olympian Maninderjit Singh to get his peers to participate in the parade.
Ahmad Faizal then instructed his officials to get them involved.
The move is to pay tribute to the nation’s sporting heroes and to inspire Malaysians to take up sports as the ministry has embarked on several initiatives for the masses, including a grassroots sports league and championing the sports industry.
Athletes joining in the parade is not new.
In 2016, athletes who competed in the Rio Olympics were part of the Merdeka Day parade. Donning the tiger stripe uniforms, they were ferried in a double-decker bus.
In 2017, winners of the SEA Games, held in Kuala Lumpur the same year, took part in the Merdeka Day celebrations.
On both occasions, the national sportsmen and sportswomen drew loud cheers from the crowd.
