Liliyana Natsir (left) - Tontowi Ahmad (Courtesy of PBSI)

The summer Olympics is an arena for strong-hearted individuals.

Those who are able to use their nerves as motivation will likely emerge as the champions.

That seemed to be the case with Indonesian hero Tontowi Ahmad and heroine Liliyana Natsir, the gold medalist pair in badminton’s mixed doubles event at the concluded 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Liliyana, the Beijing Olympics silver medalist with former partner Nova Widianto, revealed she had to push down her ego to work effectively with Tontowi in Rio.

“I found that I often responded negatively to Tontowi whenever he made mistakes on the court,” said Liliyana, who has been pairing with Tontowi since 2010, as quoted by the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) website, badmintonindonesia.org.

“But at one point I decided to change. I was fully aware it was the Olympics — a very important event,” said Liliyana, who hinted the Rio Games as her last Olympics.

“I tried my best to keep my cool because I knew Tontowi wanted to win too,” said the 31-year-old, emphasizing the pressure on them as a gold-medal hopeful pair.

From such a standpoint, the pair shook off trust issues between them and changed their playing style.

“I think our opponents could see the changes, too. We used to be like a dog and a cat on the court,” admitted Liliyana, who with Tontowi has also won gold medals at the 2015 Asia Championships, 2013 World Championship and 2011 Southeast Asian Games.

Liliyana’s strategy proved effective. She transformed herself into a better team player by improving her communication skills.

With the strong chemistry between them, Tontowi and Liliyana became the killing machine in the Copacobana fete, ousting world number one pair Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China in the 21-16, 21-15 semifinal.

The final round was then an easy-breezy battleground for the two as they also crushed eighth-ranked Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia 21-14, 21-12 in 45 minutes.

Keen on bringing home the gold, restless Liliyana finished the demanding training program, which was devised by coach Richard Mainaky.

“The coach set a specific training regime for me because I’m not young anymore. But I told him I would follow any program he set for me. During a training session, the coach once said that I trained like a 20-year-old,” shared Liliyana.

It takes two to tango. Tontowi played his role very well too to seal the golden victory.

“Being nervous is humane and unavoidable,” said Tontowi, 29. “So, I kept telling [Liliyana] to stay relaxed. I also asked her to remind me to stay relaxed.”

Tontowi prayed a lot to tone down his nervousness. “I felt really close to God. I felt uneasy even before reaching Rio,” added the father of one.

In the final match, Liliyana revealed a sweet gesture by Tontowi.

“[Tontowi] comforted me. He said, ‘It’s OK, now. I got your back. You play better at front than [Malaysia’s Goh]. Those were [Tontowi’s] words that lifted me up,” said Liliyana.

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