Paris 2024 Olympic Records: Sports Psychology Is Important For Achievement In Highest-Level Competitions

Gregoria Mariska Tunjung celebrated victory in the round of 16 badminton at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Friday (2/8/2024) early morning WIB. (X @inanewsarchive)

JAKARTA Badminton athletes who are Indonesia's mainstays at the 2024 Paris Olympics one by one fall. Indonesia for the first time since 1984 is threatened with failing to bring home medals from the Olympics. The mental problems of the players are in the spotlight of Indonesian badminton legend Ricky Subagja.

Women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who won tickets for the quarter-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics after winning a dramatic victory against South Korean players, Kim Ga-eun through a rubber game with a score of 21-4, 8-21, and 23-21, Friday (2/8/2024) early morning WIB.

He became the only Indonesian representative left in the badminton sport after five other representatives died. Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting's men's singles, Putri Apriyani Rahayu's doubles/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari, and mixed doubles Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari failed in the early rounds.

Men's doubles Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto also stopped in the quarter-finals so they had to lift the suitcase first.

Badminton officially became a sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. One of the most popular sports in Indonesia previously appeared only as a demonstration and exhibition match at the 1972 Munich Olympics and 1988 Seoul Olympics.

When officially competed in Barcelona for the first time, Indonesian badminton athletes immediately made the nation proud by winning four medals at once. As a result, two gold medals from the men's and women's singles, one silver from the men's doubles, and bronze from the men's singles.

Since badminton was competed in the Olympics, Indonesia has succeeded in adding medal coffers. Except at the 2012 London Olympics, Indonesia always contributed medals. At that time, Indonesia failed to give a single medal from all the events in badminton.

The dominance of badminton in Indonesia's medals was proven with a total of 37 medals that have been collected so far, 21 of which come from badminton. The remaining 15 medals were from weightlifting, and one medal from archery.

But unfortunately, the hope of adding medals from badminton is threatened after five Indonesian representatives are eliminated, including the men's singles sector which is considered to have the largest chance of winning medals.

Jonatan Christie is touted as the most ready athlete to look at the Olympics. Before flying to Paris, he won the All England title and the Asian champions who then led him to become the world's number three players under Shi Yu Qi and Viktor Axelsen.

If Indonesia really doesn't bring home a badminton medal, then this result will repeat the 2012 London Olympics. What distinguishes is that at that time no Adhoc team was formed ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Adhoc team is chaired by the Secretary General of PBSI, M Fadil Imran. The Adhoc team involved former players who had excelled in gold at the Olympics. Also, other parties including psychologists to manage the mood of the players to stay conducive.

In addition, the Adhoc team also claimed to have aport science approach to Paris. Badminton observer Daryadi asked the PBSI management not only to evaluate the results when the tournament ended sooner for us.

"Badminton (PP PBSI) must be managed professionally, it must be competent people who take care of it. I can see from outside and also the community that we can assess how PBSI is currently managed. Organizational performance can be seen from the achievements it produces. We can all see what kind of achievements," added Daryadi.

The Olympics are the biggest sporting stage in the world. For athletes who compete, it is not only needed skills, but also mental power to conquer opponents. Understandably, playing with millions of pairs of eyes around the world is not an easy matter.

Ricky Subagja said mental factors are very likely to be one of the determinants of an athlete's victory in the field.

This is the Olympics with all their atmospheres, which is indeed different from other tournaments. The burden and great pressure will be felt by all athletes. Who is mentally prepared and can overcome the fear, nervousness and stage fever that will win. Talking skills and technicality are all the same," said Ricky.

Reflecting on Ricky's statement, it can be concluded that psychology has an important role for athletes in the field of sports. Psychological science can be used to improve athletes' achievements and motivation, strengthen cooperation between athletes in team sports, strengthen relationships and cooperation between coaches and athletes, and so on (Sarwono, 1999).

The field of psychology that specializes in learning about the relationship between psychology and called Sports Psychology.

Sports psychology is psychology that aims to explore and develop a person's behavior, especially sportsmen and athletes.

Launching the Yogyakarta State University page, as a science, Sports Psychology is a relatively young field compared to other fields of science (Haag, 1994; Chia &manfaat, 2010). However, sports psychology has an important role to play in maintaining the mental health of athletes.

"An athlete is vulnerable in dealing with anxiety and stress. This is due to various things, such as social environmental problems, pressure to continue to excel, injuries experienced by athletes, fatigue, and various other sources of anxiety and stress," the UNS page quoted.

Common mistakes made by the coach to improve the poor performance of players by increasing the hours of physical training. This is a reflection that the coaches still do not understand the psychology of sports as an applied science.

To overcome anxiety in athletes, there are various kinds of checks commonly carried out by sports psychologists, such as conducting interviews, sharing questionnaires containing questions about anxiety experienced, observation, and physical examination.

Unfortunately, awareness about sports psychology in Indonesia is still lacking. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the performance performance of athletes is not only dependent on physical abilities, but also highly supported by mental skills that are very energetic but still relaxed.