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Quality over quantity: Indonesia eyes Olympics after SEA Games success
The country sent 499 athletes to the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games this year, down from the 841 in 2019, and saw more overall success.
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ndonesia finished third by total medal count at the recent 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, returning to the regional top three and building momentum for the country’s 2024 Olympic aspirations.
The nation sent 499 athletes to the SEA Games this year, down from 841 in 2019, and saw more overall success. The final result met a target set by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo that Indonesia finish in the top three.
The red and white squad won 69 gold medals, 91 silver and 81 bronze, bringing home a total of 241 medals. Shooting and rowing – both Olympic sports – were areas of particular strength, with the country taking home 8 golds in each. The Indonesian canoeing team bagged the most medals overall, with a total of 17 – 6 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze.
In collecting the medals, the country, which had fallen to the top five for the past four Games, reached several new milestones.
For the first time in its SEA Games history, the Indonesian basketball team managed to stop the Philippines’ supremacy, defeating them 85-81 in the final. The Gilas Pilipinas team has collected 18 SEA Games golds in the 21 events since 1977.
In swimming, teenagers Masniari Wolf and Flairene Candrea won gold in the women’s 50-meter backstroke and 100 m backstroke, respectively. It was the first time in 11 years that Indonesian female swimmers had won gold.
Youth and Sports Minister Zainuddin Amali said a state program called the National Sports Grand Design (DBON) had helped the national team screen athletes for international events. The ministry had worked with sports federations, the Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) and the Indonesian National Olympic Committee (NOC) to select and train athletes for the program.
“The main target of the DBON is the Olympics. The SEA Games and Asian Games are only our intermediate targets,” Amali said on Tuesday, adding that the program used a promotion and demotion system to push athletes toward the Olympics.
“If certain sports are underperforming, we will delist them from the DBON and replace them with other Olympic sports,” he added.
Ahead of the Paris Summer Olympics Games, Indonesia is set to compete in the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023 and likely the 2022 Asian Games in China, which had been planned for September of this year but were postponed due to COVID-19. The new date has yet to be announced.
“We are already working on the preparations for our athletes to be qualified for the Paris Olympics,” said the minister, adding that he would focus on the quality of the athletes instead of quantity.
Under the DBON, the ministry is partnering with Jakarta State University and the Education University of Indonesia in Bandung, West Java, among other universities, to use sports science in the athletes’ training programs.
Djoko Pekik Irianto, a sports professor at Yogyakarta State University, said Indonesia's achievement in the recent SEA Games should be considered as a success.
“If [our athletes] qualify for the Olympics, it won’t be too hard for them to perform well in the Asian Games and SEA Games,” said Djoko, adding that the DBON aimed to have Indonesia finish in the top five in the 2044 Olympics.
Djoko suggested prioritizing athletes who competed in Olympic sports by allowing them to train and compete overseas, preferably outside Asia.
NOC Indonesia chief Raja “Okto” Sapta Oktohari said he was satisfied with the country’s performance in Vietnam. Despite the achievement, he said, he hoped the athletes would remain grounded and continue with their training so that they could be successful in higher-level contests, such as the Asian Games and the Olympics.
2024 Paris Summer Olympics
Olympic sports:
Archery, athletics, badminton, basketball , 3-on-3 basketball, boxing, canoeing, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX freestyle, BMX racing, equestrian sports, fencing, soccer, golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, beach volleyball, diving, marathon swimming, artistic swimming, swimming, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.
Additional sports:
Break-dancing, sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing.
