Malaysian DanceSport Federation deputy president John Fam says the appeal to join the 2027 SEA Games rests on results, not host sentiment — with a target of five or six golds.
The Malaysian DanceSport Federation (MYDF) is determined to repay the trust given by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the Malaysia SEA Games Organising Committee (MASOC) secretariat by making DanceSport one of the country’s largest medal contributors at the 2027 SEA Games.
MYDF deputy president John Fam said that confidence does not come from host sentiment. It is based on the actual results of Malaysian athletes, who he said now stand ahead of several of Southeast Asia’s main rivals.
“We appealed because we know Malaysian athletes have already reached the highest level. If we had no results and no performance, we would not have appealed to OCM and MASOC,” he said, when met at the preview of the 5th WDSF Malaysia Open DanceSport Championship.
According to Fam, the evidence — including results at world and European championships — was presented to OCM and MASOC before DanceSport was accepted among the sports to be contested at the 2027 SEA Games.
“We showed results from competitions abroad, in England, Italy and across Europe. We compared Malaysia’s standing with Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and our performance is better than theirs,” he said.
He said MYDF’s confidence that it can dominate the competition is also backed by world champions the country has produced, including Cherry Yeoh, a three-time world champion.
“Not once, but three times world champion. So when people ask where Malaysia stands in Southeast Asia, we have the answer through competition results,” he said.
Fam said MYDF has studied a competition format of 10 events and believes Malaysia can take more than half of the gold medals on offer.
“Of the 10 events, our target is five or six gold medals based on the performance record of the athletes we have now. That is why OCM and MASOC were confident in what we presented,” he said.