Malaysia competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's official debut in 1956 under the name Malaya, Malaysian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except for Moscow 1980 in Moscow because of the United States-led boycott.
Medalists
Background
Administration and preparation
Malaysian former badminton player and three times Olympic Silver medalist, Datuk Lee Chong Wei was appointed on 15 June 2019 as chef de mission of the Malaysian delegation to the Games by Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Dato' Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria. However, he chose to skip the event due to his health concerns. He retained his role, albeit serving it virtually. Meanwhile, the national delegation in Tokyo is managed by OCM secretary-general Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, who is also the deputy chef-de-mission.
As with two previous Olympic cycles, Yonex-Sunrise provides the official kit for Team Malaysia, after it decided to extend its partnership with OCM until end of 2024.
Opening and closing ceremonies
For the opening ceremony, archer Khairul Anuar Mohamad and shuttler Goh Liu Ying were selected to carry the Malaysian flag in the opening ceremony. However, Khairul requested to be dropped as one of the flagbearers, as he had to focus for the archery competition a day after the ceremony. Shuttler Lee Zii Jia was announced to be Khairul's replacement. In the Parade of Nations, the Malaysian delegation was represented by five officials and eight athletes. Both the athletes and the officials participated in the parade wore the Malay legendary warrior Hang Tuah inspired attire designed by the Art and Design Faculty of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Shah Alam (Main Campus). The attire featured chevron geometric pattern in the colours of the national flag, which reflects the clear mission of the Malaysian team to achieve the country’s medal target. The female athletes wore the baju kurung complete with a dokoh (tiered pendant) and selendang (shawl), while the male athletes and officials wore the traditional Baju Melayu complete with the Tengkolok (headgear).
Diver Pandelela Rinong was named as flagbearer for the closing ceremony.
Target and achievement
On 19 July 2021, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican announced that the Malaysian delegation to the 2020 Summer Olympics had a target to win three medals, including a gold medal, with badminton, track cycling and diving being the main contenders of achieving the target.
However, the Malaysian delegation missed the target at the Games, having only won one silver medal through track cyclist Azizulhasni Awang in the Men's keirin event and one bronze medal through Men's doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. The result equalled the country's second-best achievement at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
Broadcasters
Competitors
Malaysia managed to qualify 30 athletes competing in 10 sports for the 2020 Summer Olympics, with 13 of them being first time competitors. For the first time, the women (18 athletes or 60%) outnumbered the men (12 athletes/40%) on the Malaysian team competing at these Games.
The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.
Archery
Two Malaysian archers Khairul Anuar Mohamad and Syaqiera Mashayikh qualified for the men's and women's individual and automatically to the mixed event, the men's individual recurve reached the quarterfinal stage and obtained one of the four available spots at the 2019 World Archery Championships in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. The women's individual recurve obtain a quota place assigned by world ranking.
Malaysia was absent from the men's archery team event for the first time since the 2008 Games, after failing to secure one of the last three spots to the Games offered in the 2021 Archery Final Olympic Qualification Tournament (FQT) in Paris, France, leaving Khairul as the nation's sole male representative. Khairul ended the ranking round of the men’s individual recurve event in 20th spot, shooting 72 arrows to collect 661 points. He then proceeded to the elimination stage and won through the one-arrow shoot-off in the first and second round against Finland’s Antti Vikstrom and China's Wang Dapeng respectively, only to be eliminated in the round of 16 after losing to South Korea's opponent Kim Woojin 0–6.