He once rode for gold, now he just wants to walk again

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia (MNTV) – There was a time when Mutalib Mydin rode with purpose, legs churning, lungs burning, the roar of a nation behind him. That time now lives only in photographs.

Six of them once hung on a door of his small home in Kampung Bahagia Bukit Lagong, Sungai Buloh — the last visible traces of a life that had once moved at speed. Inside, the man in those images lay still, his world reduced to a narrow bed and the slow passage of hours.

After suffering a stroke in 2021, Mutalib, 59, became bedridden, his mobility and independence stripped away piece by piece. In the six months before his rescue, he had not stepped outside. Eid came and went with him in the same position. He survived on the kindness of friends who dropped by when they could, bringing food and checking in.

It was former national athletes welfare foundation (Yakeb) chairman Noorul Ariffin who came to visit and found him there — the contrast between the photographs on the door and the man inside striking him deeply. “It is complicated when he is left alone like that,” Noorul said. “What he truly lacked was someone beside him. Someone to care.”

Shaken by what he saw, Noorul reached out to young men in the village, who came without hesitation. Together they cleaned the house, washed Mutalib — who had not bathed in five days — brought food and tended to him in a way that restored a measure of dignity. Four days later, Noorul returned to take him to the nearby Tree Retirement Home Care.

“I lived alone like that. I could not go anywhere. My body is weak. If someone helps, Alhamdulillah. If not, there is nothing,” Mutalib said. He paused, then added: “If I receive the same care others have had, I believe there is still a chance.” What he wants now is simple. “To walk again.”

In 1989, Mutalib powered his way to a gold medal in the 4,000m team pursuit at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, one of the country’s finest cycling moments. Two years earlier, he had won silver in the same event in Jakarta. He had begun with the Penang Cycling Association in 1981, rising through grit and discipline.

From the track to a quiet room, from national pride to personal struggle — his journey has taken a turn few would have imagined when he stood on the podium all those years ago. The photographs on the door are gone now. What remains is the man himself, holding on to the smallest, most human of ambitions.