Jakarta: The Indonesian team has won 1 gold medal – Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles, and 1 bronze medal – Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men’s singles at the recently concluded 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ginting became the first Indonesian men’s singles badminton player to win an Olympic medal after Taufik Hidayat won gold and Sony Dwi Kuncoro won a bronze in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ginting was proud of his historic achievement for the Indonesian badminton.
In an interview with PBSI, Ginting felt happy to be able to win a medal at the Olympics.
“It’s very meaningful, let alone it’s my first Olympics. All athletes want to participate in the Olympics, moreover, winning a medal was definitely two or three times more fun. And this means a lot to me personally, to my family, and Indonesia,” said Ginting.
Ginting also explained how he dealt with the pressure during the Games.
“The first thing was to manage expectations. I mean, I learn from all my previous matches. I was not too excited, but also not too pessimistic or relaxed either. I was staying focused both on and off the court,” explained Ginting.
“I was only focusing on one game at a time from the first day. After entering Athlete’s Village, I didn’t want to think too far. Today is today, tomorrow is tomorrow,” added Ginting.
Ginting admitted he was deeply saddened by his devastating loss to Chen Long of China in the semi-finals.
“Indeed after losing to Chen Long I was very disappointed and sad. I just want to be alone to calm myself down after the match. But my coach immediately asked me to discuss my match for tomorrow, he cheered me up. He told me there was still a chance to win a bronze medal and to make history. I have a huge chance against Kevin Cordon, so why waste this chance?”
“After that, on the way to Athlete’s Village, until I was back to my room, I tried to reset my focus and mood again. Think of the next day’s match as a final. Even though it’s only bronze, but everyone will be happy. The next day I felt better, not as sad and disappointed as the day before.”
Ginting also revealed that he was tense in the bronze medal match against Kevin Cordon of Guatemala.
“The tension was more about figuring out how to play the match against Kevin, not because I was still thinking about the defeat to Chen Long. I was afraid that I could not bring out the best and could not play well because my opponent was on fire throughout the tournament. Luckily, I managed to win the bronze medal.”
Ginting is the first badminton player to ever win a medal in both the Summer Youth Olympics and the Summer Olympics. He won bronze in the boys’ singles category of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics which was held in Nanjing, China.
