Susi Susanti hopes to use golden touch at Atlanta
Susi Susanti hopes to use golden touch at Atlanta
CHIANG MAI (DPA): Indonesia's Barcelona Olympiad badminton champion Susi Susanti hopes to repeat the golden touch in Atlanta next year.
"Sure, I'll be in Atlanta. I want to play," said the 25-year- old Susi, who is currently taking part in the 18th Southeast Asia Games here until Dec. 17.
The SEA Games are a regional version of the Olympics with 10 nations, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam competing for 334 gold medals in 28 sports, including badminton.
Indonesia's badminton queen said she doesn't expect winning in Atlanta to come easily, however, and she doesn't boast she will be victorious. She is actually quite modest.
"It will be tough because all the players will be trying hard to win because I'm champion. The competition has become stiffer," she said.
Susi and compatriot Alan Budikusuma won the women's and men's singles gold medals at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Those were the first two Olympic gold medals ever won by Indonesia.
Indonesia's SEA Games badminton coach Imelda Wiguna said their Olympic triumphs created quite a sensation in the archipelago.
"We celebrated for almost a month. Everybody was happy," she said. Many people remember Susi crying after her victory saying, "I am very, very happy to get the first gold medal for Indonesia."
She still says that, but she has quit crying about it.
Susi says the medal is with her parents in Tasikmalaya, West Java, the town where she grew up and started playing badminton with her older and younger brothers when she was a child.
Susi, a slender 161-centimeters which she called an average height for Indonesian women, said she didn't let the gold medal change her. "I feel more popular. Get more attention. But I don't want to change my attitude. I want to be myself, not change. And I want to play (badminton)," she said.
She now lives in Jakarta and plays badminton for a club. She plays full time and has no job, living off tournament prizes instead. One could say badminton is her job. She's engaged but not married and is non-committal about her future.
Susi said badminton is already very popular in Indonesia. Only soccer and volleyball rate higher. But she continues to encourage more girls to play.