The Story Of The Women's Basketball National Team Player After Winning The 2023 SEA Games Gold: Feeling Borne By The Government, The Cost Of Finding Your Own

The Indonesian women's basketball team won the Cambodia 2023 SEA Games gold medal. (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian women's basketball national team made history in Cambodia. They managed to bring home the 2023 SEA Games gold medal.

This is the first gold for Indonesian women's basketball in the history of participating in the SEA Games.

However, who would have thought there was a sad story behind that success. The struggle of the Red and White squad was minimal support, including from the government.

This is as revealed by Henny Sutjiono as team captain. One of the lack of government support is the absence of women's basketball league competitions over the past two years.

In addition, there is no support from the government when training camps are also things that are of concern and should be addressed.

"If you support, maybe women's basketball is a bit less than men's basketball, especially if it's from the government for example," he said, quoted from Deddy Corbuzier's Youtube channel on Tuesday, May 23.

"For example, for our TC for the last SEA Games Hanoi and the SEA Games, our manager is working on everything. The costs are none from the government, managers who seek and spend their own funds," said Henny.

The 29-year-old basketball player said that previously the government had always supported through financing.

However, after the pandemic, the government did not finance the women's basketball national team because it allocated a budget for sports that had the opportunity to win a gold medal.

Although he had expressed concern about the government's support, the success of the women's basketball team which won gold at the 2023 SEA Games was a definite answer.

According to the captain, this success cannot be separated from the mental aspect that continues to improve from previous years.

"Our execution actually seems sure we can, but the mentality is still when competing, we can see it in the initial game. Usually it doesn't seem like we have what we enjoy, so it's like we're not all tense, everything we have," said the basketball player from Surabaya.

After successfully proving himself at the 2023 SEA Games, the women's basketball team clearly has an injection of enthusiasm to perform better. On the same occasion, Henny even joked about demanding the government to return to support.

"I myself want to show 'awas if I get gold, it won't be financed' (to the government). I want to show that, the motivation means," he said.