KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — The preparation of national athletes heading to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games (LA28) will not stop now that the government provided funding for the Road To Gold (RTG) programme under Budget 2025.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh is confident that the fund, which is part of the more than RM230 million allocation for sports development, could open up opportunities for athletes under the RTG programme to make early preparations in their quest for the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal at LA28.

"The RM230 million sports development allocation is extremely useful for our sports programmes, including the Podium Programme and the RTG.

"The RTG preparation is for two Olympic cycles, namely Paris 2024 and LA28, meaning they can now start making early preparations,” she said after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tabled Budget 2025 in Parliament here yesterday.

Earlier, Anwar said the more than RM230 million allocation also covered the preparation of athletes ahead of the World Para Athletics Championships and the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics as well as RM15 million for the Harimau Malaya team, the Under-18 and Under-13 teams in collaboration with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

The government also agreed to set aside RM20 million to empower the e-sports ecosystem, including talent development and upgrading of the e-sports arena, while RM1 million has been allocated for the development of cricket.

The government also proposed income tax exemptions on cash prize rewards received by individual and team athletes through the National Sports Incentives Scheme provided by the National Sports Council (NSC).

Meanwhile, Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria described the allocation to galvanise sports development as a good starting point for continuing the cycle of progress in sports.

He also described it as a positive step towards preparing national athletes with world-class training ahead of upcoming multi-sports Games like the 2025 Thailand SEA Games and LA28.

"We also view the initiatives tabled by the Prime Minister as being inclusive for not leaving out the para-athletes. I hope we can the best use of this to continue the cycle of national athletes and the development of national sports,” he told Bernama.

Mohamad Norza the allocation for football development and income tax exemptions for recipients of the National Sports Incentives Scheme also showed the government’s appreciation for sporting excellence.

Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) president Datuk Seri Megat D Shahriman Zaharudin hopes that the Youth and Sports Ministry will consider providing it with an allocation of RM15 million.

He said the allocation, to be distributed to the 25 national para-sports associations, would be used for the development of athletes not under the NSC’s programme, especially for the grassroots level.

Malaysia Electronic Sports Federation (MESF) president Muhammad Naim Al Amin Saharudin, meanwhile, suggested that part of the RM20 million fund for e-sports be used to unearth backups at the school level.

This, he said, would enable MESF to introduce a specially designed co-curricular module in collaboration with the Ministry of Education at the school level, covering not just games, but also how to organise competitions as well as help from a health point of view for the players involved. — Bernama