Tickets For The 2024 Paris Olympics Sold Out, Indonesia Is Optimistic To Create New History

JAKARTA- Organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics confirmed that 6.8 million tickets had been sold for the world's biggest sporting event.

The most popular sports are football, basketball, handball, track and field, and volleyball. Additionally, tickets for triathlon, sport climbing, BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle or breaking events all sold out on the first day of sales, in less than two hours.

General Chairperson of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI/NOC Indonesia) Raja Sapta Oktohari is optimistic that Indonesia will be able to make new history at the 2024 Paris Olympics which is scheduled to take place from 26 July 2024 to 11 August 2024.

He believes a positive record can be achieved through increasing the number of athletes who qualify and adding medals.

However, Okto's opinion, the first thing that needs to be done is that the national federation needs to actively participate in the qualification process for the Olympics.

"Because the most important thing is to participate in the qualification process, so that more athletes are qualified. I am quite optimistic that at the Paris Olympics we will make new history," said Okto, quoted from an official statement, Saturday.

"We will make new history in winning medal results compared to the previous Olympics. This is a golden opportunity, we encourage it to get maximum results. Maybe later it will be a gift for Pak President Joko Widodo," he added.

Indonesia was recorded as bringing home the most gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. At that time, Merah Putih managed to win gold medals through badminton players in the men's and women's singles, Susy Susanti and Alan Budikusuma. Furthermore, the gold medal that Indonesia has at the Olympics has always been awarded by the tepok bulu sport.

“What I want to achieve is that I want to get the most gold medals as long as Indonesia participates in the Olympics. On paper, Indonesia could get two gold. If we can get three gold, that's a new record for us," said Okto.

He explained that the potential for Paris 2024 can be obtained from other sports, one of which is weightlifting. Indonesia has reliable young to senior lifters who are believed to be able to break the wait for gold at the Olympics, including Rahmat Erwin Abdullah who just set a world record in the men's 73kg clean&jerk class at the 2022 Weightlifting World Championships in Colombia. He also proved his achievements when he competed in the men's 81kg class at the regional level.

"Sport program for the Paris Olympics also has sport climbing, and our mainstay number, namely speed, is contested. Surfing hopefully I can get in, I'm also confident in archery because they prepare themselves very seriously. I think there will definitely be many surprises in Paris 2024," said Okto, quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, May 27.

Okto, who is supported by the majority of national federations to resume leadership at NOC Indonesia, also sees positive trends shown from team sports for the next Olympics. This is because Indonesia has been able to show positive trends in team sports since the 2019 Manila SEA Games to 2023 Cambodia.

“If this team sport can qualify for the Olympics, that would be great. This has been my ambition since becoming the CdM (Chef de Mission) for the 2016 Rio Olympics,” concluded Okto.