Jonatan Christie's Apology After Being Expelled From The 2024 Paris Olympics

JAKARTA The Indonesian men's singles badminton player, Jonatan Christie, apologized after he was eliminated from the Paris 2024 Olympic group stage.

The All England 2024 champion returned early after losing in the last match of Group L against representatives of India, Lakshya Sen, with a score of 18-21 and 12-21 at the Port de la Chapelle Arena, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, evening.

This result made him finish as the group runner-up. From the singles, only the group winners have the right to step into the knockout stages.

"First of all, I would like to express my deepest apologies to all Indonesian people. Sorry, today also played poorly. However, thank you very much for the support of prayers for me and my friends," said Jonathan after the match.

This defeat made Jonathan have to wait another four years to return to the Olympics to chase a medal. However, in the next edition, he was already 30 years old.

Apart from being eroded by age that can make his performance decrease, Jonathan is also not necessarily able to qualify and appear in the Los Angeles 2028 edition.

"Yes, of course very sorry, but this is the game. Until now I still don't know what to do."

"Earlier I played optimally. A little error at the end of the first half made the enemy feel confident," he said.

Jonathan is Indonesia's third representative of badminton who was eliminated from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The two representatives who had previously picked up the suitcase first were mixed doubles Rinov Rivaldy/ Pitha Haningtyas Mentari and women's doubles Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.

Badminton is one of Indonesia's mainstay sports to repeat the gold medal. In history, total badminton has contributed to eight gold medals.