KUALA LUMPUR: Will Malaysia win their first Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games next year?
If this scribe had a crystal ball, it would be answered immediately.
Frankly, Malaysia's best bets for gold were at the 2012 (London), 2016 (Rio) and 2020 (Tokyo) editions through badminton, diving and cycling, but it just did not materialise.
Men's doubles Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong came the closest to ending that wait in 2016 but could not convert the two match-point opportunities in the deciding game against China's Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan.
For Paris, there are not many athletes to choose from as potential Olympic champions.
Cyclist Azizulhasni Awang and shuttlers, Lee Zii Jia, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah do have the pedigree to return home as heroes.
But they offer only touch-and-go probabilities, and nothing more.
With just over a year ahead of Paris, however, things are not as rosy for Malaysian sports.
The "Road To Gold" project launched yesterday, a top-up to the Podium Programme, is a great initiative to assist athletes to comprehensively prepare in all aspects for Paris.
Kudos to Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and the concerned parties for coming up with a detailed initiative.
However, Malaysia had similar initiatives, with a lot of money spent in the past, but with little dividends.
Understandably, winning an Olympic title is difficult. Everyone wants to be a champion.
Performance and a bit of luck separate the champions fromwith the rest of the field.
In the previous programmes, detailed initiatives were drawn up to make sure athletes qualify and were mentally and physically prepared for the respective editions.
So what will "Road To Gold" offer differently?
This scribe believes the previous programmes had covered everything under the sun meticulously.
The current objective should be preparing the next batch of athletes for the next two Olympic cycles.
The divers, who were potential medallists in the past, returned empty-handed from Tokyo, and with no sign of new talent coming up the ranks, they will likely be passengers, if they qualify, in Paris.
Azizulhasni shows he is slowly regaining his form following recent impressive performances.
However, he is not getting any younger, and whether he can race to gold also depends on his condition following heart surgery last year.
Badminton's Lee Zii Jia is not in good form after letting go of coach Indra Wijaya.
And unless he can show some progress, not only with his backhand smash, in the coming months, the world No 4 will end up outside the medals again in Paris.
Aaron-Wooi Yik are inconsistent. Although they were crowned Malaysia's first world champions in badminton last year, they have shown little progress since then.
However, Aaron-Wooi Yik have the knack of raising the bar when it matters.
Who knows, the men's doubles pair might just deliver the Olympic title in Paris.
Pearly-Thinaah are the most progressive Malaysian pair, and they are doing decently.
The sky's the limit for Pearly-Thinaah, who have beaten top pairs from Japan and China, and they can certainly record something positive in Paris.
Going by form, if Pearly-Thinaah continue to perform, they could just nick an Olympic title.
Malaysia, since their first Olympic appearance as Malaya at the 1956 Melbourne edition, have won 13 medals — eight silver and five bronze — with the country's first medals won at the 1992 Barcelona edition.
Hopefully, all the hard work of the athletes will be worth gold in Paris.
Ajitpal Singh is the Sports Editor of NST
