PBSI Must Be Responsible For Badminton Minor Achievements At The 2024 Paris Olympics

Indonesian women's singles badminton player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung after fighting An Se-young from South Korea in the semifinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Sunday (4/8/2024). (ANTARA/Putro A)

JAKARTA Gregoria Mariska Tunjung has won the hearts of Indonesian badminton lovers thanks to her heroic performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But on the one hand,badminton lovers demanded a massive overhaul in the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI).

Indonesia successfully won the first medal in Paris after Gregoria presented bronze. The badminton player who is familiarly called Jorji ensured that she was ranked third in the women's singles sector even without having to play a match for third place.

Gregoria, 24, was due to face the winner of another women's singles semifinal match between Carolina Marin from Spain and Chinese representative He Bing Jiao.

Carolina Marin was forced to withdraw in the second game due to injury, even though he won the first set with a score of 21-14.

Jorji's success in saving Indonesia's face at the Olympics. Understandably, badminton is a hope for a medal. Since its introduction at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, badminton has always presented medals.

Even in the seven of the eight editions, this sport always contributes to the gold medal. Now, after the badminton achievement in Paris is a mess, the performance of the PBSI management is also a concern, because it is accused of being more focused on preparing national deliberations than the Olympics, which is the biggest sporting event in the world.

Gregoria did win medals in a way that was not determined by the match. Bronze, he said. But this result does not shrink how Jorji's struggle to the top four.

Heavy expenses were clearly on his shoulders, when four Indonesian representatives in this branch were immediately eliminated in the group stage. They are Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Jonatan Christie, Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadila Silva Ramadhanti, and Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari.

Jorji then became Indonesia's only hope of flying the red and white in Paris after the men's doubles pair Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto were repatriated by Liang Wei Lihat/Wang Chang from China in the quarter-finals.

Although then his steps were stopped in the semifinals, and Gregoria's struggle 'only' medal could not be underestimated.

In the midst of the heavy burden that was carried, Jorji managed to silence the doubter by defeating Ratchanok Intanon. This Thai athlete managed to beat Grego eight times from the previous nine meetings, namely in the Uber Cup match on May 3, 2024.

Mentally competing Jorji when facing Intanon deserves thumbs up. He managed to win two straight sets, 25-23, 21-9.

Even when meeting An Se-young, the world's first seed and first ranked. The player who was born in Wonogiri again competed confidently and had a good mental attitude on Sunday (4/8/2024) afternoon WIB.

Just look at the look on An Se-young's face at the end of the match. Al-young embraced warmly and asked Jorji to take a picture together to show his acknowledgment of the quality of playing the opponent. He even proposed the audience to give applause to Gregoria, who smiled he made.

A competition mentality that during the 2024 Olympics tournament was complained by Ricky Subagja, who currently plays the Head of the PBSI Development and Achievement Division.

After it was confirmed that none of Indonesia's representatives had advanced until the final, netizens expressed anger on the PBSI management. According to them, the downturn of the Red and White in Paris this year is the result of the indiscriminateness of PBSI officials in managing the parent organization of domestic badminton.

"Let's be a little embarrassed by the management, step back," wrote one user X, who used to be Twitter.

While other users wrote, It's a very sad result, not just the Olympics. The management and chairman must apologize and withdraw!!!

The chaos ofbadminton lovers towards the PBSI management has actually been smelled for a long time. This Olympics event actually became an assessment of the management's performance because it took place in the final period of management which lasted four years.

Especially for PBSI 2020-2024, the management under Agung Firman Sampurna as general chairman and Alex Tirta as daily chairman and Deputy General Chair I, received two Olympic moments, namely Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. This is because Tokyo 2020 will be held in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

In Tokyo, Indonesia won gold through Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu, an achievement that was welcomed by the new board, which was only elected eight months earlier. Two months later Indonesia won the 2020 Thomas Cup in Denmark, which is also an overflow event from 2020.

But the real appraiser for PBSI 2020-2024 is at the 2024 Olympics. On the way to Paris, which began with the qualification phase from May 1, 2023 to April 28, 2024, several PP PBSI decisions made badminton lovers shake their foreheads.

Nova Widianto, the mixed doubles coach, chose to move to Malaysia in December 2022. This decision shocked many, especially since the two young Indonesian mixed doubles have made an impressive progress.

Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari managed to become the semifinalist of the 2022 BWF World Tour Finals. Meanwhile, Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto/Lisa Ayu Kusumawati also successfully won their first BWF World Tour Super 300 title, Hylo Open 2022. In the final, they could not bear to beat Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalist Huang Dong Ping who collaborated with young Feng Yan Zhe.

When moving, Nova admitted that he was "looking for new challenges" as the main reason behind his decision, even though it certainly did not satisfy netizens.

Then in June 2023, Djoko Mardijanto was appointed as a substitute. His track record is not too flashy. He had only won Asia 1992 with Sri Untani. The Olympic target is considered too big for Djoko.

PBSI itself also crossed out Djoko three months later. The reason is age and competence. The change of coach in a short time in the midst of a big target makes it difficult for mixed doubles players to adapt.

Former mixed doubles coach, Richard Mainaky, who is now training at PB Talenta, Manado, even regretted the situation at that time.

The performance of PBSI has again been highlighted by netizens because Indonesia is not holding it in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. The Thomas Cup won in 2021 will also not be repeated in the next two editions, because it fell to India in 2022 and China in 2024.

The pressure for the general chairman and PBSI management to step down is getting tighter when Indonesia does not get a medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

In the 2023 competition season, Indonesia only collected 13 titles from the BWF World Tour tournament (Final BWF, Super 1000, 750, 500, and 300). This number is far behind China, which bought 47 titles, South Korea 25 titles, and Japan 2020.

In the midst of the decline in badminton achievements, PBSI officials did not appear to be too serious about cleaning up. PBSI is instead busy preparing a national meeting to be held in Surabaya on August 10-12. The main agenda is to have a ketum for the next four years.

The election of the ketum has become the most interesting agenda for its members, namely the PBSI provincial management. Meanwhile, the theme of coaching and achievement is considered not very interesting to discuss.

It seems that the PBSI management forgot or even it was important to restore the glory of badminton. After this, the national training is also predicted to run out of athletes for Los Angeles 2028. Gregoria, Jonathan, and Anthoni in single need a successor. Even with Fajar/Rian's successors who seem difficult to qualify for the Olympics.

Jorji's success in saving the face of Indonesian badminton should not necessarily turn off the PBSI's obligation to conduct a massive evaluation. Four years is not a long time to fix all existing shortcomings so that Indonesia can return to glory in Los Angeles.