If there’s a benchmark on how countries should treat and appreciate their athletes, it goes without saying that Malaysia wouldn’t figure anywhere in the top five.

We have heard of gold medallists who get more flak over their “revealing” clothes than praise for their achievements, and of athletes, who despite their physical limitations, win medals for the country, only to get a next to zero “welcome” from the relevant authorities.

Karate exponent Nastenka Sureshar may just fit this list. This is because the second-year university student has turned to crowdfunding to help her pursue her dream of making it both in martial arts and her academic studies.

Malaysiakini recently reported that the 21 year-old Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) student had posted in local higher education crowdfunding website Skolafund, seeking RM6,350 to support her meals, accommodation and transportation over a span of two semesters.

The civil engineering student, who is in the national back-up karate team, won the gold medal in the 2015 Commonwealth Karate Championship.

Her father is a part-time electrical engineer and the sole breadwinner in the family. She is the eldest of four siblings.

With the RM70 a week pocket money she gets, she has to juggle her meals and travelling from her campus to her karate training sessions at Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah.

Due to her financial constraints, Nastenka had often resorted to having one meal per day, or just settling for instant noodles.
That’s right. An inspiring athlete, who is supposed to be “taken care” of by the government or the sport’s governing body at the very least, is being forced to go without proper nourishment and turning to the public for funds.

She was admittedly reluctant at first to crowdfund her dreams, but eventually put up her post and has thus far managed to get close to RM7,000 – way past her targeted amount.

Good for her, but why did it have to come to this in the first place?

Does our government not have a mechanism in place to ensure our athletes, not to mention medal winning ones, are not deprived of their academic dreams due to financial constraints?

Where is the Youth and Sports Ministry? Where is MIC?

Were they aware that one of our shining athletes was facing financial difficulties? What would it take to set up a fund to look after the welfare of our athletes, even when they are out of the arena?

Malaysia is notorious for losing students who are academically talented to neighbouring countries, due to our reluctance to provide them with proper avenues to display their talent.

If the current trend continues, we may just have our athletes flocking elsewhere to get the recognition and financial assistance they truly deserve.