What is the current state of Thai futsal?
It should be more popular than it is. Futsal is street football, anyone can play, and we have many talented newcomers, but we lack support from both the government and sponsors. Unfortunately, this year the Thailand Futsal League kicked off six months late [in September] despite the fact that we’re hosting the FIFA Futsal World Cup. This is a huge setback for our preparations. Our national team is ranked 11th in the world and 2nd in Asia, but our league hasn’t adequately prepared our players for the World Cup. That’s a real shame.
What’s causing these problems?
The Football Association of Thailand doesn’t take futsal seriously. They never outline yearly plans for futsal, for the league or international competitions, and that’s finally taking its toll. The Thai FA always puts football first. We are so lucky to be host of the World Cup and have the opportunity to see the globe’s best futsal players gathered at the same place. But I’m devastated at the whole stadium debacle.
Is there a solution?
Corruption is at the core of our problems. As long as people are being dishonest and always looking out for their own interests, Thai sports will never be successful. Those who are genuinely willing to develop sport are being pushed out of the inner circle so that people with no idea are left in charge. They are installed by the big executives who surround themselves with their followers.
What’s the future of Thai futsal?
It’s really tough to say, as other countries are getting better. Our futsal team has come this far because our athletes are great. But if we can’t solve our problems and improve our management, I fear that we might start losing to Vietnam or Malaysia, like our football team. They got loads of support and money, and used to be ASEAN champions, but look at them now, they were kicked out in the group stages of the last AFF Championship. How is that progress?
What’s the current state of disabled sports in Thailand?
It’s really much better than in the past. Before we hosted both the Asian Games and FESPIC Games in 1998, people had no idea what the Paralympic Games was. Some even said that we tortured disabled people by making them play sports. But once we started sending more athletes to the Paralympics, people began recognizing the pride and fantastic spirit of these individuals. This has helped change society’s attitudes towards disabled people; where once parents were often embarrassed about having a disabled child and would keep them at home, now they encourage them to take up sports. Sponsors have jumped on aboard, too.
What are disabled athletes lacking in terms of support?
Lots. First, we need sports facilities built especially with disabled people in mind. Our disabled athletes don’t have suitable places to practice. Existing venues are inconvenient and even dangerous. A blind athlete fell down from the fourth floor of Supachalasai Stadium last year. Thank God he survived. Another pressing concern is budget. Where other sports associations receive funding to develop their athletes within one sport, our two-million-baht budget from the Sports Authority of Thailand has to be dispersed across 18 different categories of sport. We also lack medical officials to classify our athletes according to disability—for this, there are only three qualified doctors in Thailand. More doctors would also help us improve our sports science to get the most out of our athletes. We also need volunteers to help out at sports meets in terms of transport and administration.
What special difficulties do disabled athletes face?
Disabled athletes need a longer time to practice compared to normal athletes. Sometimes they suffer injuries during practice, like pressure sores, which mean they have to stop training. To have a balanced body and state of mind takes lots of time. I want them to have more security in life. And many of our athletes don’t have stable jobs. They’re vendors who sell groceries, coffee or lottery tickets. If they take days off, it means they have no money or have to rely on their spouse or family. They don’t have the chance to work for the government or a company like other athletes, because of their different abilities. Public transport is a problem, too. It’s too expensive having to take a cab to work or training.
How did you first get into archery?
I started when I was 14 shortly after I was in an accident that cost me my right leg. I was hit by a truck driven by a drunk driver while I was riding my motorbike. After I recovered, I was determined to push myself, so I decided to take up archery. For one, I like the archer’s pose—it’s really elegant. I got into the national Paralympics team for archery when I was 15 but after falling out with the coach I switched to swimming, for which I won a silver medal at the SEA Games in 1997. After that, I dropped out of sports for nearly 10 years before I decided to make my archery comeback.
How is life as an athlete?
It isn’t that easy. As I want to go to the Olympics, I had no choice but to quit my job so that I could practice and attend competitions to move up the world rankings. I’m not on the payroll like other fully-abled athletes who might have a government position. The daily allowance from the association is barely more than a hundred baht a day. I can’t survive on that. All I can to do is dip into my savings from when I worked as a graphic designer.
What keeps you going?
I have three dreams in life. The first is to graduate with a degree. The second is for my parents to get back together; they’ve been separated for five years now. Thirdly, I want to serve my king and my country on the world stage as a national team athlete.
How did you start playing table tennis?
I went along to the police table tennis club that my dad always attended. I saw others playing and wanted to join in. I would go early to practice by myself—I was embarrassed to play with others because of my disability. I didn’t want to slow them down. But when my dad saw me hiding and his friends found out who I was, they asked me to play with them every day. My dad later took me to be trained by the national team coach, and soon I was competing in national competitions and the SEA Games. I qualified for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 where I was disappointed to miss out on a medal. In the lead-up, I had decided to drop my studies at Kasetsart University to concentrate solely on table tennis. But in the end, I failed. I was totally dejected. I stopped playing for months until I realized that I didn’t want to be remembered as a loser. I didn’t want to be called a cripple like I was in school. So I began to practice again.
How has your life changed after winning gold at the London Paralympics?
It’s true that I tasted success in London, but I want people to know that it didn’t happen overnight. It took me eight years. I put all my life into fighting for gold, and I’m so proud of my achievement. But following the Paralympics, I was left disappointed that so many athletes, sponsors and even association officials didn’t pay their respects to the coaches. Athletes can’t be successful without the sacrifice of a good coach—some even quit their jobs to take care of their athletes, almost like parents. But so many do not get the recognition they deserve and are left jobless at the end of the day.
What’s the future?
Personally, I’m currently studying computer science and plan to continue onto a master’s degree while continuing to represent the national team. I really want more disabled people to play sports. If that means I have to be more active to promote sports with the new generation, then so be it. I’m willing to teach people so that our disabled athletes reach new levels.
Tell us about your experience coaching Thailand’s team since 2003?
It’s been really tough. Many promises were made before I moved here, but then I found that corruption is everywhere in sports. I was raised in Germany so I’m totally against this and I felt that I had to speak out. Officials at the Amateur Fencing Association of Thailand turned against me. There was no support for athletes. We had no coach and no team manager, so instead of concentrating on competing, we had to do everything ourselves. For one competition I had to manage everything and pay all my expenses up front. On my return, I tried to claim my expenses, about B500,000, but the association refused to reimburse me. To this day, I still haven’t been reimbursed.
What is wrong with our sports administration?
I genuinely believe that the Sports Authority is willing to support all sports, but instead of directly funding our athletes, the money is passed through the associations, which is where the corruption is. If there is no transparency, how can we trust our sports management? The newly elected president and sports associations committee might have the best intentions, but that means nothing if corrupt individuals litter the system and nobody can touch them. Many of these people don’t have the athletes’ best interests at heart and make decisions without consulting them. Another problem is sponsors who fund associations rather than individual athletes; this leads to mismanagement of funds.
What needs to change?
Right now, it takes Olympic success before the general public is interested in a sport. That’s sick! I want to change that mindset. We should look upon our athletes as fine wines who need time to mature. You can’t just throw a one-off lump of money at them and expect success. If we keep doing that, we will forever be the Amateur Fencing Association and never reach professional levels.
What’s the current state of Thai fencing?
We’ve been through lots of problems. Not so long ago we had no budget so the athletes had no coach and no team manager, so had to do everything on their own. Even now, the executives of the association are doing their jobs as unpaid volunteers.
How do you explain fencing’s lack of popularity in Thailand?
Firstly, fencing isn’t a sport that easy to approach like football or boxing. It requires a huge amount of money compared to other sports with cheaper equipment; it’s more than B20,000 for a full fencing set. Fencing is really popular at US universities, who are hiring all the best coaches from Europe. As the demand is so high, we can’t afford to hire a foreign coach. Our education system also prevents athletes from putting their full efforts into practicing. They should have the time to train for six hours, six days a week, but their classes leave them only two hours a day. We also don’t have a proper facility, after the Sports Authority reassigned our association gym for something else. Luckily, the Air Force has lent us one of their gyms for our national team. I’m hopeful of a bright future now that we have elected Wiradech as team manager. He knows what it takes to do better.
What do you think about politics in sports?
I think it’s a necessity. But we must be careful to involve only those for whom Thai sports, not personal interest, come first. Developing sports require lots of investment. If we don’t invest, then we have no chance of improving.
What is the current state of Thai basketball?
Our basketball teams have underperformed for a long time, maybe 10 years, because the association didn’t pay enough attention to training young players to replace the old athletes who retired. The old system of searching for potential athletes and bringing them to train in Bangkok is destroying us. We must realize that 90% of our athletes come from rural areas so we are much better off developing basketball at the grassroots nationwide.
Why is basketball struggling to attract support?
I played for the national basketball team 48 years ago and have been in basketball circles all my life. We lack planning. No one will support us if we can’t show to them that we can really make it. I’ve invested B1-2 million of my own money to boost basketball, both in terms of training and competitions. We need the public, the government and the private sector to pay more attention to us. If our teams perform well, then people will support them. We’re in pretty good shape right now: our under-18 team just finished fifth at the Asian Championships in October. We try to organize basketball tournaments at least twice a year. I want to do more but we have a limited budget and not enough teams to play all year round. We only have 6-8 teams in the league.
What’s the plan for the future?
We’re aiming to become the number one country in ASEAN within three years. To do so, we must find the find the best athletes with the right builds for basketball. A human body can’t be bought, but tactics can. So, now we are choosing kids who are tall and strong so that we can then train them to be the best. We’re fortunate to have Joe Bryant, dad of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, as our head coach. He’s now chasing opportunities for our athletes to train in the US for short periods of time. Hopefully, the future is bright for basketball.
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