First National Sportswoman Award Recipient from Tapah
Born in 1946, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam, a middle-distance sprinter, set a record as the first woman in Malaysia to receive the National Sportswoman award in 1966 after winning a gold medal in the 400-meter event, which was contested for women for the first time, earning her the title of Asia's Track Queen.
She was also the first woman from Malaysia to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964, competing in the 400-meter and 800-meter events. At 20 years old, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam was the youngest athlete competing at the time. Throughout her ten-year involvement in athletics from 1959 to 1969, she successfully collected 19 gold medals for the country. She retired early from the Ministry of Education in 1991 at the age of 47. She was awarded the AMN and PJK medals.
Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam was born in Tapah, Perak, and is the daughter of V. Mailvaganam, a Public Works Department employee who was a very strict father. Her athletic career began when she was chosen to run the final leg for a relay team at an English-medium government primary school in her hometown. At that time, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam was in Grade 4. Although the participants from other schools for the final leg were well-known runners, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam managed to beat them, an achievement she feels very proud of to this day. After winning medals every year in school, state, and national level championships, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam took a short break while in Form 5 to focus on her studies.
After her exams, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam spent most of her time sleeping, which annoyed her father, who arranged for her to be trained by coach R. Supiah every day between 4:30 PM and 7:30 PM. To get to the field for training, she had to look for anyone in her neighborhood willing to lend her a bicycle. This later became a routine. Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam's father then took her to a shoemaker to make her first pair of spiked shoes. The shoes were made of leather with sawed-off nails attached to the soles. Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam used these shoes for training as well as for participating in championships, and when the spikes became loose, she would return to the shoemaker to reinforce the soles with more leather.
Her life at that time was very difficult, without any luxuries, and her family ate whatever was on the kitchen table. Unlike today's athletes who are pampered by the Malaysian government, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam received no assistance from the government at all, including allowances when participating in athletic events. When her coach, R. Supiah, asked Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam to buy a track suit, her family could not afford it even though the price at the time was only RM20. Therefore, her coach bought bath towels to be sewn into her track suits. Fortunately, a sports shop agreed to sponsor Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam before the towels were sent to be sewn. After six months of training under Supiah, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam qualified to participate in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. This was the first time Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam had traveled abroad. She was given RM64 as a laundry allowance, without any other benefits. Therefore, Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam had to befriend participants from the Indian subcontinent who brought their own cook for their meals.
Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam considers winning four gold medals at the 1965 SEAP Games as the highlight of her career because she was running on home soil. Although Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam is a non-Malay citizen, she said in an interview with the New Sunday Times in July 2006, "Every time I see the Malaysian flag raised and the national anthem played, I cry. I am very proud to stand on the podium, with everyone clapping and cheering. I have a warm feeling that makes me want to give my best to my country." Datuk Rajamani Mailvaganam's father was always present when she ran, and Tunku Abdul Rahman, the prime minister at the time, also occasionally attended the 1965 SEAP Games.
