KUALA LUMPUR: The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) believes up to 28 Malaysian athletes will secure places at the Paris Olympics that will run from July 26 to Aug 11.
OCM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria said 18 athletes had secured qualification on merit so far.
"So far, 18 athletes — 12 individuals and three pairs — from seven sports have qualified for Paris," said Norza at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
"OCM is expecting more athletes to qualify by the end of the qualifying period at the end of June.
"Among those expected to qualify are our archers, in both individual and team events. They will be competing in a qualifying event in Antalya, Turkiye, from June 18 to 23.
"We are also anticipating slots via the reallocation of unused quotas in diving as well as universality places, better known as wildcards, in swimming and athletics.
"At the end of the day, we expect to have around 28 athletes (in the contingent)."
Those who have qualified are archer Ariana Nur Dania Mohd Zairi, sailors Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy and Nur Shazrin Latif, shooter Johnathan Wong, diver Bertrand Rhodict Lises, track cyclists Azizulhasni Awang, Shah Firdaus Sahrom and Izzah Izzati Asri and road cyclist Nur Aisyah Zubir.
National shuttlers will have to wait until May 1 for their qualification status to be official, though Lee Zii Jia, Goh Jin Wei, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei have already secured their slots in their categories.
Malaysia sent 30 athletes to compete in 10 sports at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was held a year later than scheduled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.