A scramble among sports officials to be in the Malaysian contingent to the Tokyo Olympics next year is expected to begin soon, even as athletes toil hard to qualify on merit.

Are the interests of athletes given consideration when officials are chosen to accompany the teams?

Will freeloaders be part of Team Malaysia?

In the past, Malaysian teams to the Olympics have included some incompetent officials in the mix, causing despondency among athletes.

The rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games will be held from July 23-Aug 8. Twelve athletes have qualified, but Malaysia is hoping to send a contingent of between 30 and 35.

It is logical that the contingent includes coaches and technical officials, or in some cases parents who have been instrumental in getting their children to qualify, but this is not always the case.

The selection of officials depends on the number of athletes who have qualified, and by the gender of the participants.

The International Olympic Council (IOC) has the final say on officials escorting athletes, the number of which should not exceed 50% of sportspersons in the party.

Malaysian officials are chosen by the national sports association from which an athlete has qualified. The name is submitted to the Olympic Council of Malaysia for endorsement.

Depending on the number of athletes from their sport who have made the grade, the associations usually name a team manager and coach.

If they are allowed only one official, a team manager is sometimes named, and this is where the problem lies – athletes prefer a coach or technical expert.

There have been cases when officials have been rewarded with a trip to the Olympics at the expense of an athlete’s interests.

The 50% quota of officials accompanying athletes has also been abused because accreditation is transferable.

Since most sports are not held at the same time, athletes and officials are only sent to the Games a few days before the start of their events. The IOC allows the accreditation of officials who have returned to be transferred to officials of other sports.

However, the total number of accreditations cannot exceed that allocated to a nation.

At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Malaysia competed in 11 sports, represented by 32 athletes. The contingent included 40 officials.

Besides team managers, coaches and technical experts, officials also included the medical team and secretariat staff, all of whom were billeted in the Games Village.

The National Sports Council and National Sports Institute sent ‘back-up teams’ who operated from outside the Games Village at their own cost.

They provided services to the athletes either where they were or visited the Games Village using day passes.

Then, there have been cases where questionable officials were part of the contingent.

In one case, an athlete convinced OCM to include a technical staff, who played a key role in his qualification, in addition to his coach, although a team manager had been nominated.

An unpleasant encounter involved a manager who had arrived ahead of an athlete and made no effort to meet him and his coach at the airport.

Officials who arrive before their athletes are common because they want to take part in the opening ceremony parade.

At Rio, while all the athletes could take part in the parade, IOC only allowed 14 Malaysian officials

However, since some athletes skipped the opening ceremony owing to events the next day, officials were in full force.

Some officials hardly spent time with the athletes or were not around when needed. Those who had dedicated officials by their side performed well.

It is hoped sports associations will take the interest of athletes at heart and stop rewarding officials to gain votes at their next election.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.