Jakarta: Indonesia’s badminton legend, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics women’s singles gold medalist said in an Instagram live on Monday that the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) has to get better at preparing its badminton players for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
“The 2024 Olympic Games is just around the corner. This time, it’s going to be another 3 years instead of waiting for 4 more years,” said Susanti.
Susanti said that usually after every Olympics, a lot of countries will make changes to their lineup, some athletes will retire and some young athletes will start to rise.
“PBSI is currently trying to develop some young players to become the successors of athletes who decide to retire,” said Susanti.
“In the men’s singles, Ginting still has a chance. Likewise, Jojo (Jonatan Christie), although he didn’t do well at the Tokyo Olympics,” continued Susanti.
“We also have young players like Chiko. There are also other junior players who are currently training under PBSI,” added Susanti.
The 50-year-old also mentioned the World No. 1 men’s doubles player – Marcus Gideon, as Gideon will turn 33 years old in the next three years.
“For the men’s doubles, we have quite a lot of young talents. Because now we have Kevin (Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo). I don’t know the coach’s plan whether to keep pairing Marcus Gideon with Kevin, because Gideon is already over 30 years old,” said Susanti.
She brought up the name of World No. 7 men’s pair – Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, who are now the same age as Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
In addition to Marcus Gideon, Susi also mentioned Greysia Polii who already made up her mind to retire and not planning to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“In the men’s doubles department, we have Fajar-Rian who are still at Kevin’s age.”
“For women’s doubles, of course, the coach’s job now is to find a partner for Apriyani. Because Apriyani, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist is still very young, at 23 years old, so PBSI must find a suitable partner for her.”
