Evaluation Of The Paris Olympics, The Importance Of Sport Science And Psychological Assistance For Athletes

Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Indonesia managed to rank 39th at the 2024 Paris Olympics with two gold medals and one bronze medal. Although the results were quite satisfactory, Commission X of the DPR provided a number of evaluations for the improvement of national sports.

"I appreciate all athletes who have competed and worked hard to make the nation proud. This includes coaches, official teams, and other support teams for Indonesia's success at the 2024 Paris Olympics," said Commission X member Andreas Hugo Pareira, Tuesday (13/8/24).

In particular, Andreas expressed his appreciation to Veddriq Leonardo (rocket climbing) and Rizky Juniansyah (weightlifting) who won gold medals, as well as Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (bulutangkis) with his bronze medal. For athletes who have not brought a win, he encouraged them to continue to fight for achievements in the future.

"Thank you for the dedication and hard work of all Indonesian contingents at the 2025 Paris Olympics. This achievement is thanks to the joint struggles and efforts that I know are not easy," he said.

"And as stated by the Chairperson of the DPR, Puan Maharani, the success of the Garuda Team at the Paris Olympics is a gift for the commemoration of the 79th Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia," Andreas continued.

The success of the Red and White Team at the Paris Olympics is also considered as proof that Indonesia has the potential for excellence in a number of sports (sports), in addition to badminton. However, there is still a lot of homework (PR) that must be done for the advancement of national sports.

According to Andreas, evaluation and improvement need to improve the quality of national sports from regional to central levels, reflecting on a number of potential Indonesian athletes who fell in the early stages of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"Like badminton, the mainstay sport that usually contributes gold. We need to evaluate why the performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics is lacking. With evaluation, we can fix it from the less," said the legislator from the NTT I electoral district.

Andreas reminded that Indonesia already has a National Sports Grand Design (DBON) which is the mandate of Law Number 11 of 2022 concerning Sport. In its implementation, DBON becomes a reference in the development of national sports.

DBON is a Long-Term Sports Development program 2021-2045 which includes: educational sports, community sports and achievement sports. One of the targets of DBON is that Indonesia is able to achieve the best achievements at the 2044 Olympics.

"We already have a DBON, rock climbing has actually entered the DBON, although it has only been started since 2 years. In the future, sports coaching must be tiered according to what has been mandated in the Sports Law which has been agreed between the DPR and the Government," Andreas explained.

Even though the Government has issued Presidential Decree No. 86 of 2021 concerning DBON, Andreas said that derivative regulations are also needed to support its technicalities, especially for coaching and coaching athletes.

"There must be supporting rules for the implementation, including the preparation of supporting facilities. We encourage the Government to immediately make derivative rules from the Sports Law regarding the coaching of athletes," he said.

Therefore, Commission X of the DPR in charge of sports affairs encourages the Government to immediately issue other technical implementing regulations related to DBON. Especially for priority sports.

DBON's priorities include badminton, weightlifting, rock climbing, archery, shooting, wushu, karate, taekwondo, cycling, swimming, athletics, artistic gymnastics, pencak silat, and rowing. In order to optimize the results of coaching in this priority sport, one of the focuses of DBON is the Sport Science method as a medium of parameters to see the health skills of an athlete.

"There must be supporting rules to support that, including the preparation of supporting facilities. In particular, the tools for implementing Sport Science," Andreas explained.

The Sport Science method is the application of various sciences such as coaching science, biomechanicals, motor control and motorbike development, psychology, nutrition and much more to know where the athletes' advantages and weaknesses are.

Not only that, Sport Science can also predict and compare the results of the tests that have been carried out, monitor the results of the training that has been carried out, and set a goal. If necessary, a program revision, said Andreas, Sport Science can be used to identify talent and determine targets.

"The procurement of Sport Science is very important so that athlete coaching is not in vain," he said.

Andreas explained that Sport Science could be applied to evaluate the results of the 2024 Paris Olympics yesterday, especially in badminton, which is a mainstay but does not provide the best results as usual.

"In terms of quality, our players yesterday at the Olympics were not inferior to other countries, in fact, many of our athletes were superior. But I see, our badminton athletes were mentally less tough yesterday," Andreas explained.

With the implementation of DBON, Andreas said that there should be a psychologist who assists athletes as part of coaching so that athletes' mentality can be better maintained.

"So this psychological aspect is also important. At Sport Science it involves various aspects such as psychological affairs, in addition to coaching athletes must be done in stages and with technical and physical aspects," he added.

According to Andreas, psychological assistance for athletes is very much needed, especially in competitions where the level of competition is very high like the Olympics. So the aspect of psychological development is very much needed.

"Athlete must feel under pressure because they are required to win a medal or achievement. They must bring the nation's good name, then compete with big athletes. So the aspect of psychological development also determines the achievements of athletes," said Andreas.

Indeed, everyone's psychological condition is different. For example, like Gregoria (Jorji) Mariska Tunjung, which Andreas considered to be able to be mentally stronger during the last Paris Olympics.

"I saw Jorji a little different from the other athletes during yesterday's match. Jorji looks much calmer, even though his struggle is also hard. But his mentality looks stronger, his fighting power looks very high," he said.

Apart from that, Andreas said that psychological aspects and other aspects must still be considered in an effort to improve the quality of athletes. Because of this, it is necessary for technical rules derived from DBON so that athlete development can be more optimal, including the provision of Sport Science needs infrastructure.

"This part must also be a concern in the future," concluded Andreas.