Felicitations to Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, the first Indonesian women’s doubles badminton players to get gold medals in the Olympics.
History was made for Indonesia on Monday, 2 August 2021, when its women’s doubles badminton players, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, reached the final and won gold in the Tokyo Olympics. This milestone puts Indonesia in the same league as the People’s Republic of China, having won Olympic medals in every badminton category at the Olympic Games. Later the same day, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting contributed a bronze medal in a single’s game, which gave Indonesia a tally of one gold, one silver and three bronze medals; two bronzes were won in weightlifting by Windy Cantika Aisah and Rahmat Erwin Adbullah.
Indonesia has been sending its best athletes to the Olympics, the most prestigious sporting games, since 1952. As of these Games, Indonesian athletes have won a total of 37 medals: 21 in badminton, 15 in weightlifting and one in archery. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia ranks second in terms of the number of gold medals and overall medals, behind Thailand.
Badminton is a national sport in Indonesia. When the game was added to the Olympics for Barcelona 1992, the country stole the world’s attention by winning both the men’s and women’s singles games, with Susi Susanti and Alan Budikusuma the victors. Since then, Badminton has contributed the most medals to the country’s tally.
Congratulations to all the nation’s heroes!
