IMAGINE this. The year is 2036. And a Malaysian sprints to victory in the coveted blue riband 100m event at the Olympics.
The speaker blares: “Malaysian sprinter Amare Isabis (or any other name you can come up with, for that matter) wins the 100m race in a blistering time of 9.50s!”
The crowd goes wild acknowledging the fastest man in the world.
And, lo and behold, there stands Amare atop the podium as Negaraku reverberates around the stadium.
Tears flow freely among all Malaysians, who have waited for so long for this magical moment at the Olympics.
A fantasy, you say?
A dream?
Well, you know what, this “dream” might just become a reality soon.
The signs are already there.
Philippines enjoyed such a moment — albeit in the more modest setting of the Sea Games — on the opening day of athletics on Saturday.
The hosts broke away from tradition and held the women’s 200m ahead of the blue riband event on Day 1 of athletics.
The reason is none other than Kristina Knott — a dreadlocked Filipino-American sprinter who did the nation proud twice on the same day.
The 24-year-old set a Games record in the heats by clocking 23.07s. Then, in the evening, she slashed 0.06 of a second off that time for the gold.
The half-filled stadium went wild as Kristina, with the Philippines flag draped over her shoulders, jogged around the track lapping up the adulation and basking in her moment of glory.
This is the second time that Philippine sprint legend Lydia de Vega’s 33-year-old record of 23.35, set in 1986 in California, has been broken.
Zion Corrales Nelson, of Filipino-Canadian heritage, was the first to shatter the mark when she clocked 23.18s in the heats of a track and field meet in Sacramento, California in May.
This is the future — one where athletes of mixed parentage rule the roost.
And one which Malaysia is set to benefit from as well.
Two of them have already done Malaysia proud at the Games here.
Yesterday, Russel Alexander Nasir Taib, who is of Malaysian-Australian parentage, won bronze in the 200m.
Then swimmer Arvin Singh, whose father is Sikh and mother is Thai-Chinese, helped Malaysia win the 4x200m freestyle bronze.
They are not the only ones, though.
Walk into the Games Village in New Clark City and one is bound to bump into a foreign-looking athlete walking or eating among his or her South-East Asian peer.
This is the future, indeed. Embrace it, just like Malaysians will embrace Amare’s (or that of any foreign-looking athlete of mixed parentage) golden moment in the near future.