The Success Of Veddriq Leonardo And Rizki Juniansyah At The 2024 Paris Olympics: Indonesian Homework Continues Gold Tradition

Indonesian rock climbing athlete Veddriq Leonardo holds the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Paris, Thursday (8/8/2024). (NOC Indonesia)

JAKARTA - When the Indonesian people almost stopped expecting additional medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Veddriq Leonardo and Rizki Juniansyah appeared proud. They made history by contributing their first gold to rock climbing and weightlifting.

It is natural that the public is disappointed when badminton, the sport of pride in the country, is only able to contribute bronze through the women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. The reason is, Indonesia has almost never missed the Olympic medal in this sport. Only in 2012 did badminton athletes fail to donate medals to Indonesia.

However, this disappointment was cured thanks to the achievements of Veddriq and Rizki, who unexpectedly were able to fly the Red and White flag at their first appearance at the Olympics.

The bad scenario of repeating the bitter moment 2012 when Indonesia Raya did not reverberate in London in the end did not happen. In the last 12 years in London, Indonesia was unable to bring home a gold medal, but only two silvers from Triyatno and Citra Febrianti, as well as bronze presented by Eko Yuli Irawan.

At that time badminton, which became a mainstay, was even nirmedal in Elizabeth's country. Unpleasant memories when Indonesia was unable to bring home gold at the Olympics were imagined when badminton athletes fell before the final to compete for the gold medal.

However, the nightmare was not repeated thanks to the impressive results achieved by two debutants, Veddriq Leonardo and Rizki Juniansyah from rock climbing and weightlifting, respectively.

Unmitigated, in less than 24 hours the Red and White flew twice.

First thanks to the success of Veddriq who appeared in thepeedputra number beating Wu Peng in the final round, Thursday (8/8/2024) afternoon WIB. Then followed by young athlete Rizki Juniansyah who fell in the 73 kg number. Rizki managed to present gold with a total lift of 354 kg.

The achievements of these two medals are also history. First, Indonesia has competed in rock climbing for the first time, even though this sport has started competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when only the combination number is being competed.

In addition to being the second sport to present a gold medal, rock climbing is also the fourth sport to present medals for Indonesia at the Olympics, after archery, badminton, and weightlifting.

A sweet note was also inscribed for weightlifting. Before competing in the 2024 Olympics, weightlifting had indeed presented 15 medals out of a total of 37 medals won by Indonesia.

However, not a single gold medal has been obtained for this one sport. Until finally Rizki Juniansyah made gold ink as the first athlete to get gold from the weightlifting branch for Indonesia.

In addition, this 21-year-old lifter also listed his name as the winner of the Olympic Record for the clean and jerk with an lift of 199 kg.

"Initially I was nervous. But thank God I was able to make history at the Olympics. I hope this gold medal is for Indonesia's weightlifting so that weightlifting and national training can be even better," said Rizki Juniansyah after the match.

The success of Veddriq and Rizki has clearly attracted attention. The gold from the two is proof that Indonesia was able to win gold in non-badminton, which has been subscribed since the sport was competed in the Olympics for the first time in 1992 at Barcelona.

Ir Hadi Wihardja OLY as a member of the Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) Research and Training Commission (AWF) said he was proud of Rizki's achievements in making history in Paris 2024. But on the one hand, he said this could be a burden in the future.

Actually, this achievement is a burden in the future. Now everyone wants to be another rizki-rizki'. On the one hand, this is indeed a capital, but it must be accompanied by sharp coaching," Hadi told VOI.

"This is a burden to create medals again, currently in the 73 kg class when it comes to world levels, there are only two potential ones, the rest are still at the Asian level," he added.

For this reason, Hadi emphasized the importance of cooperation between all stakeholders to create other Eko Yulianto and Rizki Juniansyah so that Indonesia's weightlifting achievements can be consistently calculated on the world stage.

"To educate 83 coaches and the importance of long-term coaching. There is no other choice to continue to make weightlifting achievements at the world level," said Hadi.

In addition, he also encouraged the activities of championships at the age levels of 12-14, 15-17, 18-19 and seniors to continue to be improved. Hadi is optimistic about the collaboration of youth coaching, championships at various levels, and improves the quality of the coach, so the Olympic medal tradition is from weightlifting.

"Especially if the 2028 Olympics can return to 14 classes, I am sure there will be more Indonesian medal coffers," said Hadi.

For now, the two gold obtained by Veddriq Leonardo and Rizki Juniansyah should be celebrated. But in the future, a myriad of homework awaits so that the golden tradition for Indonesia at the Olympics does not break.