Identification of high-probability medal-winning events for Malaysian swimmers through analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Introduction: The achievement of an Olympic gold medal in 2016 by a Southeast Asian (SEA) swimmer invigorated Malaysian swim authorities to increase investment in the sport. However, Malaysian swimming performance declined during the 2019 SEA Games, intensifying the urgency to identify events that have the highest potential for Malaysian swimmers to achieve a podium finish by comparing international swimming records of previous SEA (SG), Asian (AG) and Commonwealth (CG) games, and also world records with those recorded during the 2021 Malaysia Open which involved swimmers from the Malaysian national team. Methods: Primary data from the Malaysia Open were converted into swim points according to FINA's formula and compared with SG, AG, CG and world records dated up to 25 August 2021 (including records set during the Tokyo Olympics) using a spreadsheet programme. Results: Analyses (n = 80 male and 79 female records) revealed that: (i) Malaysian male swimmers were strongest in the middle-distance freestyle and backstroke events, while female swimmers were best in the short- and middle-distance breaststroke events; (ii) overall Malaysian swimmers' swim points were 30 years behind current world standards; (iii) current male and female national team swimmers have a possibility of undergoing successful participation experience in 30% and 60% of international-level events, respectively and (iv) swimmers from Singapore and Vietnam won most of the medals offered at SG, while China, Japan and South Korea are the main winners at AG. Conclusion: Malaysian swim authorities should focus on developing swimmers for endurance events and events that do not require an endowment of significant physical size, and on training female swim talent to win at international-level swim competitions. In addition, new training technology needs to be incorporated as this has been found to be indispensable.