Lee Zhi Jia is a Malaysian singles badminton player and sports icon with several notable achievement:
2021 All England Open, 2022 Badminton Asia Championships, Top 10 world rank, etc. As a teenager, he
was trained under the Badmintion Association of Malaysia (BAM), badminton's governing body in
Malaysia responsible for training athletes and their development with financial support from the
government (via the Ministry of Youth and Sports) and private parties (i.e. Petronas in 2022, Axiata
Celcom in 2018, Maybank 2013).
On 19 January 2022, Lee Zhi Jia resigned from the BAM to be an independent player citing that he was
unhappy with the association as he felt that he had little liberty and was pressured by the BAM. There is
speculation that the training given by the BAM was ineffective. Since then, Lee Zhi Jia's performance in
International badminton tournaments have been unsatisfactory, and . He decided to part ways with his
personal coach, Indra Wijaya, on November 2022.
The BAM had faced multiple challenges in 2021 with the previous Minister for Youth and Sports Ahmad
Faizal deciding to cut funding and receiving criticism for downplaying complaints of sexual harassment
from National Diving Athlete Pandelela Rinong. Under the current minister, Hannah Yeoh, there seems
to be hope for the BAM to rebuild under her initiatives (i.e. budget allocations for Youth Empowerment,
granting tax-exempt status to encourage the growth of the sports industry, etc)