LETTER | Help national ice skating star achieve her dreams, don't politicise

LETTER | Recently, we were shocked by the statement of Chendren Balakrishnan, the father of the youngest ice skating star in the world Sree Abiraame, when he said they did not have enough funds for her to continue training in Latvia.

If this situation persists without any financial help, it will end the promising dream of our national athlete to succeed in her sports career. Many promised to help the family achieve Abiraame's dream of participating in the 2024 Winter Olympics but till now there is no progress on the promises made. Instead, those who have promised have started to blame each other.

In this issue, I hope we can act maturely and not politicise this issue by blaming each other. We need to remember that Abiraame's achievement is our national pride. She represented all Malaysians and made us all feel proud when she accomplished such achievements at her young age.

Hence, let's not destroy her promising future in sports by involving politics in it. The Ministry of Youth and Sports can take proactive steps to assist the athlete in terms of accommodation and so on. In turn, local companies can offer sports sponsorships to the national athlete. Such initiatives will further increase the motivation of athletes to perform better in the sports arena.

With this, I would like to emphasise that every political leader in our country needs to work together, set aside their political feud, and put our national athlete as our priority to achieve her dreams so that she can continue making our country famous in the sports world.

KIRAN RAJ SATHIVEL is a member of Parlimen Belia Malaysia.