Sports, nationalism, and achievement: Indonesian badminton in the 1992 barcelona olympics

The Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world filled by almost all sports, and held every four years. The Olympics serves as a proof for athletes and participating nations. For athletes, the Olympic games become a means of self-proving to other athletes who can have the highest position in this event. For a country, the Olympics is a proof of being a developed country. Indonesia has attended the Olympics since 1954, when it was held in Finland. From 1954 to 1988, Indonesia won only a silver medal for archery in 1998, in Seoul, South Korea. Indonesia was pleased with the opportunity to get an open gold medal, when the International Olympic Committee decided to include badminton in the Olympics. The Indonesia Badminton Association made special preparations for athletes who were most likely to perform at the Olympics. This article discusses the journey of Indonesian badminton athletes at the Barcelona Olympics event held in 1992. The study of sports achievements (especially on badminton), has not received much attention. This article is different from the previous articles; the difference lies in the assessment of Indonesia badminton performance especially in the Olympics. This study uses a historical method. This method consists of four stages: (1) heuristics, (2), source critic, (3) interpretation, (4) historiography. The use of writing sources was taken from several institutions such as Kompas Research and Development, National Library, and the library of the University of Indonesia. The sources used in this study were in the form of newspapers, books, online journals, and writing on some official agency website. The writing of this article focuses on the factors that made Indonesia gain the best achievement in the Olympic event of Barcelona in 1992. The results show that the ‘winning tradition’ of Indonesian badminton has existed since Indonesia joined international tournaments, so when participating in the first badminton tournament held in the Olympics, Indonesia wants to achieve the highest achievement in Olympic. The sense of nationalism of the athletes also adds the spirit to achieve success. When competing, athletes carry the name of the country on their backs so they feel responsible for doing their best for the country.