Southeast Asia soars at Paris Olympics, improving Tokyo results

PARIS – While not quite a global sporting powerhouse region, Southeast Asia equaled its best gold-medal haul at a single Olympics with five golds, three silvers and eight bronzes in a creditable Paris 2024 outing, as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore made the podium with a few standout performances.

Their total of 16 medals were also second only to the 5-10-3 tally from Rio 2016, an improvement from the 3-4-6 haul from Tokyo in 2021.

PHILIPPINES (2 golds, 2 bronzes)

Proving that size does not matter, the Philippines’ best Olympic outing was fuelled by pocket dynamos below 1.6m.

Carlos Yulo single-handedly kept the Filipinos at the top of the Southeast Asian pile as the 1.5m gymnast created history with his double triumph in the men’s vault and floor exercise, as 1.58m boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio claimed bronze. Also standing at 1.5m is weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who became the nation’s first Olympic champion at Tokyo 2020.

READ: Carlos Yulo bags second gold medal, rules vault in Paris Olympics

While boxing has long been a popular sport in the Philippines, there has been an upward trend in its gymnastics results since the 2011 SEA Games.

Then came generational talent Yulo, who overcame a family feud and a break-up with Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya to deliver in Paris.

INDONESIA (2 golds, 1 bronze)

Paris 2024 marked the first time that Indonesia clinched Olympic gold outside badminton. After stars like Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting were surprisingly eliminated in the group stage, sport climber Veddriq Leonardo won the men’s speed gold in 4.75sec.

Weightlifter Rizki Juniansyah added another gold, while Gregoria Tunjung kept up her country’s rich badminton history with a women’s singles bronze.

READ: Speed climber wins Indonesia’s first gold at Paris Olympics

But it is the climbing gold – the sport made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 – that may provide a blueprint for the region’s athletes, who may struggle more with certain traditional sports that place a premium on infrastructure and resources.

Referring to how the Republic’s Maximilian Maeder won a bronze in the new men’s kite event, Team Singapore chef de mission Tan Wearn Haw said: “When there’s innovation in sports, in the events and in the competition format… we need to seize on the opportunity to jump the pecking order because we are still young compared to a lot of these very established countries.

“We need to be smart to focus on certain niche areas, and within those niche areas, we need to be ahead of the curve.”

THAILAND (1 gold, 3 silvers, 2 bronzes)

Panipak Wongpattanakit retained her taekwondo -49kg gold, but there was also significant attention on the Thai weightlifters, who proved their pedigree with two silvers (Theerapong Silachai and Weeraphon Wichuma) and one bronze (Surodchana Khambao).

In doing so, they reinforced weightlifting’s status as the kingdom’s most lucrative Olympic sport with a total of five golds, four silvers and eight bronzes.

Three years ago, Thailand was banned from sending weightlifters to the Tokyo Games due to multiple doping offenses.

READ: Wongpattanakit wins Thailand’s first gold at Paris Olympics

Asian Weightlifting Federation executive board member Niwat Limsuknirun explained how a clean-up has given the sport a fresh start with screening and monitoring now a strong focus. He said: “Nobody can join the 60-strong national squads before they have undergone a six-month screening process and been educated about doping.

“After the doping problems we investigated what happened in our family, not just in the national team but in our clubs. We found some clubs were trying to help lifters (in illegal ways), and club coaches who don’t know what damage they are causing, who don’t see the big picture.”

Thailand also has its biggest spread of sports contributing to its medal haul at a single Olympics as athletes from badminton, boxing (Janjaem Suwannapheng) and taekwondo chipped in. After several false dawns, badminton world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn produced an unprecedented men’s singles silver.

Kunlavut came up through the Banthongyord Badminton School, which also produced former women’s world champion Ratchanok Intanon, showing how private academies can play an important role in augmenting the high-performance ecosystem.

MALAYSIA (2 bronzes)

While they are still trying to win that elusive Olympic gold, badminton continues to bring in the medals for Malaysia with another two bronzes in the men’s singles (Lee Zii Jia) and men’s doubles (Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik).

Lee had left the national set-up in a controversial manner in 2022 and the Malaysian media noted how his podium finish shows that national team and independent players can function simultaneously to achieve results.

READ: Malaysia’s top badminton player Lee Zii Jia quits national team

There were agonising misses for Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan who finished fourth in the badminton women’s doubles, as did weightlifter Aniq Kasdan who missed a bronze by just 1kg.

Online news outlet The Malaysian Insight felt that “it is vital to foster an environment that supports mental strength and prepares athletes, who are no longer ‘jaguh kampung’ (Malay for village champions), for the rigors of international competition”.

It added: “Embracing a data-driven strategy, investing in athlete development, and learning from global best practices can pave the way for Malaysia to finally secure that elusive gold medal in future Games.”

SINGAPORE (one bronze)

World champion Maximilian ‘Max’ Maeder delivered Singapore’s first medal at the Paris Olympics after snatching bronze in the men’s kite event at Marseille Marina on Friday (March 9).

The 17-year-old’s achievement, which makes him Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist, came at a perfect time as the nation celebrated its 59th National Day.

The gold medal went to Valentin Bontus from Austria while Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek took home silver.

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had also took to Facebook to congratulate the kitefoiler.

A total of 23 athletes across 11 sports represented Singapore at the Paris Olympics. The contingent returned home with the sailing medal – the country’s first in eight years.

VIETNAM (no medals)

Women’s 10m air pistol shooter Trinh Thu Vinh came closest to winning only the sixth Olympic medal for Vietnam, but ended fourth, as the former French colony finished empty-handed again following a barren Tokyo 2020 outing.

Local newspaper Tuoi Tre wrote that this is a “wake-up call” that reflects “Vietnam’s lack of sport leadership, leaving Vietnamese athletes with minimal chances to compete on the international stage”.

READ: Vietnam ends Paris Olympics campaign without a medal

However, the wheels are in motion for the entire region to improve on its Olympic medal output, as the next three SEA Games held in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore respectively will feature a standard sports program to help athletes better prepare for the Olympics and Asian Games.

Singapore Sport Institute chief Su Chun Wei said: “This is a very positive development for the next three editions. It certainly gives us the ability to plan for multiple cycles of the SEA Games.

“It is very good for high performance ecosystems when there is a more consistent SEA Games portfolio, and we can certainly work to map out those plans and support the athletes in their journey in the next five or six years.”