President Prabowo Wants Pencak Silat To Be Recognized Before The 2028 Olympics

JAKARTA President Prabowo Subianto is eager for the pencak silat sport to be recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, United States.

The Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora), Dito Ariotedjo, said that competing in pencak silat sports in Los Angeles is a priority for the current National Sports Grand Design (DBON).

"Mr. President really hopes that before the 2028 Olympics pencak silat can be recognized by the International Olympic Committee," said Dito in a meeting at the ministerial level of integrated central coordination regarding Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 86 of 2021 concerning DBON on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.

To be able to penetrate the Olympics, there are several things that need to be done in the pencak silat roadmap.

First, the support of at least 50 countries from five continents recognized by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOC) and foster athletes and hold national championships.

Then, secondly, support the development of pencak silat abroad by sending trainers to train of trainers (TOT) to coaches and judges with international standards.

The last thing is to support pencak silat equipment to all local pencak silat national federations, such as mattresses, body shields, IT-based assessment systems, and video assistant referee (VAR).

"For these products, yesterday there was hope from the President so that our local industry could participate. So, maybe later from the Ministry of Industry we can score as well," said Dito.

In addition, the most important thing is to develop regulations and regulations that regulate pencak silat to make it more attractive, attractive, and sell for profit.

Not only that, another step is to develop a local pencak silat organization to follow international and national federation regulations by referring to the Olympic Charter.

Then the implementation of world-class championships is also a coherent part of the efforts above. One of them this month will be the Pencak Silat World Championship in Abu Dhabi which is attended by 79 countries.

"This championship is organized by the government of the United Arab Emirates. This event will be used as a lobbying process for the IOC and the introduction of pencak silat to the world," said Dito.