Behind the Glory of A Sport Personality

I was reading this article on the Sun and it mentioned that “The cynic should give Malayssians a chance. Embrace the brave, the visionaries, the dreamers and the innovators. Embrace positive energy”.


This is truly a wakeup call for many Malaysia. We need to stop thinking that heroes only come from abroad. We also need to start treating our heroes just like another ordinary person that has done something extra ordinary.

I know this is not a post on Toyota Alphard but it is just a way to share my thoughts after finding more about the true behind the glory of a sport personality.

When I was fixing my car at Dynasty last week, I had the pleasure of meeting up with his elder brother Joe Lee. Joe explained to me the concept of CWD and what products will be offered through CWD. They have plans to bring this brand to an international level with Dato’ Lee being the ambassador of this brand.

As our chat turn to the game of badminton, I understand better now how their family feel about Dato’ Lee involvement in this sport. While we acknowledged the fact that Dato’ Lee recently has won 4 super series badminton events in a row and then captured the All England just this month, a lot of people still don’t understand the pains that Dato’ Lee has to go through to get to this level.

During his low point in his badminton career, especially when he lost the Olympic gold medal match, a lot of people is writing him off or think that he has not put in his best effort, he prove them wrong and come up even stronger in 2010.

Despite all the glory, there is the other side of the story that probably no one will be able to see or feel other than their family members. For example, Joe was commenting that after Dato’ Lee won the All England event the family didn’t even get a chance to have dinner with Dato’ Lee until 4 days later. He was so busy attending all those celebration with the VIPs that he didn’t even has time to see the family.

The other sad part of being a sport personality is that people tend to “treat” him differently. Joe was relating how Dato’ Lee felt when the two of them were shopping at a mall, even as Dato’ Lee are checking out some clothing, the sales girl behind was commenting why Dato’ Lee has to check out the clothing before he buy. That pissed off Dato’ Lee and he left without buying anything. I wouldn’t blame him if he decides to buy his clothing while he is in oversea.

Also with his recent success, he cannot have his personal life just like any one of us. He can’t go anywhere without being recognized and crowded by curious bystanders. He can’t even go out to his favourite food stall to have a quiet meal. He has to ask his brother to pack it for him and eat alone in the hostel.

Currently the biggest challenge Dato’ Lee has is finding a sparring partner for his ongoing training. There are hardly any capable player in the BAM squad at the moment that can spar with Dato’ Lee and pushes him harder while he prepared for the next major event.

Also on the mental side, being the number one rank player in the world, he is the lone fighter out there in every tournament. Instead of having a team mate who is equally capable to spread the load of taking on players from other country, Dato’ Lee will have to do it alone. His preparation will include watching videos of all his potential opponents. This will put a lot of stress and mental fatigue on him to go through this in every tournament. No forgetting physical strain he has to go through to defeat his opponent to capture each super series title is even harder to bear.

I can now feel how much strength you need to have to be successful at this level in any sport. If you don’t have the mental and physical strength, a lot of people who can’t take the stress would have walk away.

For now, Dato’ Lee is our country hope in every tournament that he participate in. He just can’t quit and walk away when the country glory is upon his shoulder.

Coming back to the CWD brand, with such a person standing behind the CWD brand, I have confident that the Toyota MPV owners will be assure of the quality and the reputation of a true sportman.