KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — National diving head coach Yang Zhuliang’s contract was not extended as he failed to protect athletes from an environment of rape, sexual harassment, violence, bullying and threats, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said although Yang, who was appointed head coach of national diving since 2008, had been successful in training divers Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong, both of whom were medal winners in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, several issues had worried various quarters.

“The main reason why Zhuliang’s contract as national diving head coach was not renewed was because of a culture and environment of fear among some of our diving athletes. This culture and environment had caused cases of rape, sexual harassment, violence, beatings, bullying and threats,” Khairy said in a statement.

“Although Zhuliang himself was not involved in those things, he had allowed them to spread uncontrollably even though several warnings had been issued to him and another coach who was quite close to him.

“After that coach was charged in the Kuala Lumpur sessions court on October 11 2017 under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code for the offence of raping a national diving athlete, the environment and surroundings of the national diving team’s training became more complicated,” the minister added.

National diving coach Huang Qiang, a Malaysian citizen who was originally from China, was charged with raping a 20-year-old national diver at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil here last September.

Khairy said after the rape case, he had asked SEA Games chef-de-mission Datuk Marina Chin to find out how to prevent such incidents in national sports.

“Her investigation revealed the existence of a toxic fearful culture, or a culture and environment of fear, that almost completely permeated the diving sport,” Khairy said.

“This is the main reason why I chose not to continue his contract. My responsibility as sports minister is not merely to make policy for Malaysia to achieve the highest success in sports, but also to uphold the welfare of national athletes and to protect them from any threats. No gold medal is worth more than the safety of national athletes.”

Chinese coach Yang’s contract will end on December 31.

Khairy said the National Sports Institute (NSI) and the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia have identified a coach from Australia to help acting head coach Zhang Yukun, in light of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April and the Jakarta Asian Games in August.

“This new line of coaches has been asked to fully integrate sports science, such as conditioning, mental training, biomechanical analysis and nutritional aspects that were previously not fully utilised,” said the minister.

He added that in his previous instruction to NSI to announce the decision not to renew Yang’s contract, he had also asked NSI to protect the reputation of all parties so as not to cast aspersions on Malaysian sport.

“Perhaps because of that instruction, NSI was unable to provide a complete and detailed explanation. This had invited further questions about Zhuliang’s fate. Because of that, I have no choice but to provide a full revelation of this issue.”

Local daily The Star reported Wednesday NSI chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi as saying that Yang’s coaching contract was not extended because of the Chinese national’s alleged refusal to embrace sports science.