“Secret weapon!” – Aaron Chia & Soh Wooi Yik Speak in Malay with Coaches to Hide Tactics From China Team

After enduring heartbreak after heartbreak at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Malaysians finally have something to celebrate as our men’s doubles badminton duo Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (World Ranking: 3) win our 1st ever medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics!

Coming back from a set down to beat Denmark’s A.S. Rasmussen and K. Astrup in a super close match, the Malaysian duo successfully defended the bronze medal in the competition, making our country proud. Chia and Soh also won the bronze medal during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik speaking in Bahasa Melayu when facing the Chinese doubles team

The biggest hurdle that Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik faced in the Paris Olympic Games has got to be the Chinese duo, Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who are ranked first in the world.

Losing twice to the China doubles team in the competition, including a heartbreakingly close semi-final match, we’re sure that Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik will look forward to a rematch with the world no 1s in other competitions soon.

Speaking of their matchups, the 1st Paris 2024 group-stage battle between the 2 doubles teams went viral due to the rather ‘unconventional’ way the Malaysian team used to hide their tactics against the Chinese team.

Shared by Astro Arena on TikTok, the video has been viewed over 1.6 million times and garnered more than 97,300 likes.

In the video, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik can be seen speaking with the national coach Rexy Mainaky during the 2nd set of the group stage match against the China duo, where they discuss the tactical approach to the match.

Knowing that the China team would understand Mandarin, the 3 of them spoke in Bahasa Melayu so that the opponents wouldn’t get what they were discussing. 

In the caption, Astro Arena wrote, “Language is our secret weapon!”, while on the overlaid text of the video, the broadcaster asserted,

“When we meet China, we use the national language!”

Watch the video here:

@astroarena Bahasa adalah senjata rahsia kita! Liputan langsung Sukan Olimpik Paris 2024 hanya di @sooka malaysia & @Astro Malaysia #GoForGold #SokongMalaysia #OlimpikParis2024 #KitaSemuaTeamMAS ♬ original sound – Astro Arena

Malaysia’s multi-lingual capabilities are our secret weapon!

In the comments section, many Malaysians were amused at this ‘tactical’ approach by the national team and pointed out how our nation’s multi-lingual capabilities are 1 of our strengths in international competitions.

One commenter joked that the duo should’ve used the Kelantanese dialect so that the opponents would be even more confused.

Meanwhile, another commenter noted how the Malaysian women’s doubles team use Mandarin to speak to each other when going against Indonesia so that they won’t understand them.

However, several commenters pointed out that Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik used Bahasa Melayu because coach Rexy, who is Indonesian, wouldn’t understand Mandarin.

So, what do you guys think of the video? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: BREAKING: Aaron Chia & Soh Wooi Yik are Bringing Home the Olympic Bronze Medal!