PBSI's Target At The 2024 Paris Olympics Misses Far

JAKARTA The target of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) to bring home a gold medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics is far behind.

The Secretary General of PBSI, Fadil Imran, in a prayer with the badminton team for the Olympics on Thursday, July 11, 2024, said that they departed with the target of maintaining the gold medal tradition.

"Our first target is how to get a medal. Of course we are trying to get a gold medal," he said at the time.

However, far from fire. Badminton for the second time in Olympic history has certainly not brought home a gold medal, repeating a similar record in London 2012.

Of the six representatives who left for Paris this year, not even one even reached the final round. Of that number, only two were able to penetrate the knockout stages, while the rest ran aground in the group phase.

Returning home at the group stage was felt by mixed doubles Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari, women's doubles Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, as well as men's singles duo Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Jonatan Christie.

Meanwhile, the two representatives who can qualify for the knockout stages are the men's doubles pair Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto and the women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.

Gregoria pun menjadi satu-satunya wakil dari bulu tangkis yang bisa membawa pulang medali. Pebulu tangkis asal Wonogiri ini menjalani babak semifinal, tetapi kalah melawan tunggal Korea Selatan, An Se-young.

The bronze medal is currently in Gregoria's hands. The 2017 junior world champion achieved this achievement because his opponent in the bronze medal race, Carolina Marin, could not fight due to injury.

Marin, the women's singles from Spain who won the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics gold medal, was injured against Chinese representative He Bingjao in the semifinals.

The bronze medal that Gregoria got could at least save badminton as a sport that routinely medals at the Olympics.

In addition, this medal made badminton better one step away from when it was in London 2012. At that time, this sport did not even have a medal at all.

"I realize that the results achieved by the Indonesian badminton team at the 2024 Paris Olympics did not match the expectations of the community," said PBSI General Chair, Agung Firman Sampurna, for bad bad badminton results.

Badminton from the Olympics edition since Barcelona 1992 is Indonesia's mainstay sport to get gold, the exception of London and Paris.

This sport has contributed a total of eight gold medals in Olympic history. They are also still the sole sport that provides gold for Indonesia.