The Malaysia Volleyball Association (MAVA) issued a statement to slam the negative comments made about the physique of its athletes.

This was after the Malaysian duo, Nur Azwa Qariesya Mohammad Noor Aizuddin and Rachael Goh, lost 0-2 to both China and Japan at the 2025 AVC Beach Tour Pingtan Open, held in China from May 8 to 11.

Photos of Match

A post by MAVA on May 10 announced that the Malaysia team had lost their matches to both countries, which was accompanied by photos of a game, as well as posed photos of the Malaysia and China players side-by-side.

Commenters Jump In

The post attracted numerous comments that targeted the Malaysian athletes, as they appeared smaller in stature compared to their Chinese counterparts.

Many of the commenters, who appeared to be fellow Malaysians, left snide remarks by asking if the match was between children and adults, and if the Malaysians were undernourished.

haiya. southeast asia ppl memang kecik size mah..

188.9cm on average for women volleyball. Malaysia men also kalah.

just like some of the male said, size doesnt matter... skill more importance

it happens as a result of having nasi lemak every morning and too much sugar. plotek plotek when sugar subsidy remove ..

actually no. in any country, there are tall ppl, there are short ppl, even if feed well and no malnutrition, genetically short, you can only grow until certain height. just look at Africa, a lot of the top athlete came from poor family and are malnutrition at some point, but they are built different and still manage to come out top after training and maintain good diet.

but for country that is very competitive in sports like china and japan. every inch counts. the tall ones are selected to be trains in favour of the shorts one, those that are physically disadvantage most likely got kick out early.

you already said is average.. how about T10 percentile? how the height there? even if T1 percentile of SG population there are still like 50K ppl.. and that is just SG.. imagine china and japan..

I know you are banana but if you can follow Chinese tiktok there are streamers who break down the average height of the population according to the provinces. Those closest to Vietnam like yunnan region are comparatively short. Those from north east near Russia and Manchuria region very tall. 1.8 m is the norm

Even Japan and Thailand are ten plus cm shorter than average pro volleyball. Those girls from 🇨🇳 in the pic confirm are from north eastern China famous for tall ppl. The southern China like yunnan and Guangdong all shirt and petite like here.

Firstly. Male.

Second a lot of them have parents who came from northern China. Unlike our local population which is purely malay or southern Chinese.

The picture shows a height difference of almost 30 cm. No amount of nutrition can make up that height. Is true that are girls can grow taller with better nutrition but the limit is also like in sg where girls average 165-175cm for the tall ones.

What about hk? Are their basketball players dominating Chinese league? They are taller than average asean and a bit taller than sg and Japan but still shorter than South Koreans and northern Chinese.

Wake me up when Vietnam becomes taller than average Chinese from north China

Wonder why the Sikh and Singhs all very tall and big size. Famous for becoming enforcer for Brit’s.