Kaleidoscope 2024: Indonesia Repeats Olympic History And Passes Target At Paralympics

Veddriq Leonardo made history for Indonesian rock climbing by winning gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics (doc. NOC Indonesia).

JAKARTA There are various sporting agendas held throughout 2024. One of them is the 2024 Paris Olympics, the world's largest multi-branch where Indonesia has succeeded in repeating history.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. In total, there are approximately 10,500 athletes participating in the most massive sporting event in the universe that lasts once every four years.

Indonesia took part by sending 29 athletes from 12 sports (sports), including four from rock climbing. The Paris 2024 Olympics marked the first time in the history of rock climbing has been contested.

The four rock climbing athletes who left there were Veddriq Leonardo, Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi, Rahmad Adi Mulyono, and Rajiah Sallsabillah. Veddriq then took home the gold medal from the men's speed number.

The 27-year-old athlete who was born in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, successfully won after defeating an opponent from China, Wu Peng, in the final match which took place at the Le Borguet Climbing Venue, on Thursday, August 8, 2024.

Veddriq brought home a gold medal to Indonesia with a record time of 4.75 seconds or only a narrow 0.02 second lead from his opponent. Veddriq's success was then followed by weightlifter Rizki Juniansyah a few hours later.

The lifter from Banten, Tangerang, received gold in Paris from his flagship class of 73 kilograms (kg) of men.

Rizki became the best with a total lift of 354 kilograms (155 kg snatch and 199 kg clean and jerk).

Weightlifting is actually one of the sports that regularly contributes medals for Indonesia. However, this is the first time the sport has broken eggs and brought home a gold medal from the Olympic stage.

This is the first time in Indonesian history to be able to get a gold medal from sports outside badminton at the Olympics. In addition, the achievements of the two golds repeated success at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Winning two gold medals in one edition of the Olympics is still Indonesia's best achievement. Two gold medals in Paris actually missed Indonesia's target, which went there with the ambition of winning more than two gold medals to become a new history.

Despite getting two golds, Indonesia should also be disappointed with the achievement in Paris. The reason is, badminton, which has been the mainstay of the Red and White, has not brought a gold medal.

The only medal pocketed by badminton is bronze. The medal was obtained by the women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, a badminton player who was once world champion at the junior level in 2017.

This is the second time in history since being competed at the Barcelona Olympics, badminton has returned without bringing gold. Another edition with a similar fate occurred at the London Olympics, England, in 2012.

When compared to Paris, London is much more gloomy for badminton. At that time, this sport did not even have a single medal from the three medals brought home by the Indonesian contingent at that time.

Paris 2024 Paralympics

In addition to being successful at the 2024 Olympics, the Indonesian contingent also exceeded the target when appearing at the 2024 Paralympics. The event involving athletes with disabilities was also held in Paris City, France.

The Paralympics took place from August 28 to September 8, 2024. Indonesia went there with a fairly fat number of athletes, namely 35 people. This number increased from 23 athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Indonesia's journey in this event ended in 50th position in the final standings for medals. Red-White finished in that place with a record of one gold medal, eight silver medals, and five bronze medals.

This achievement exceeded the target taken. When leaving there, the Red-White Contingent only had a dream of winning one gold, two silver medals, and three bronze medals.

The only gold medal pocketed by Indonesia from the Paralympics was won by Hikmat Ramdani/Leani Ratri Oktila. This pair triumphed in the classification badminton mixed doubles SL3-SU5.

Hikmat/Leani sukses menjadi yang terbaik setah mengalahkan komatriot mereka pasangan Fredy Setiawan/Khalimatus Sadiyah dua set langsung 21-16 dan 21-15 di Porte de la Chapelle Arena, Paris, pada Senin, 2 September 2024.

The clash between Indonesian couples in the final round was so emotional. The winner Leani was unable to hold back tears, because she was happy and had to bury Khalimatus' dream of getting a gold medal.

Leani and Khalimatus had previously been a couple and successfully won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which was postponed for a year due to the corona pandemic. At that time they controlled the women's doubles classification SL3-SU5.

In addition to getting gold, Leani also got one silver in Paris through the women's singles number SL4 classification. In this number, she lost against Chinese representatives, Chen He Fang, in a battle of two straight sets 14-21 and 18-21.

The six other silver medals in Paris 2024 were secured by Muhammad Bintang Herlangga (boccia-tunggal men), Muhammad Syafa/Felix Ardi Yudha/Gischa Zayana (boccia-mixed team), Saptoyogo Purnomo ( men's athlete-100 meters), Karisma Evi Tiarani (women's athlete-100 meters), Suryo Nugroho (men's tunggal-badminton), and Qonitah Ikhtiar Syakoroh (SL3 women's badminton-tunggal).

Then the bronze medal was brought home by Muhamad Syafa (Men's Boccia-Tunggal), Gischa Zayana (women'sboccia-tunggal), Fredy Setiawan (Men's Singles-badminton), Dheva Anrimusthi (SU5 men's singles-badminton), Subhan/Rina Marlina (SH6 mixed badminton-badminton).