Susi Susanti – The queen of badminton

4th of August, 1992. One of the greatest players to walk on a badminton court, Susi Susanti broke down in tears of joy, after winning the gold medal at 1992 Olympics. A lifetime of sacrifices, blood, sweat, toil and tears had finally yielded results. The cherished dream of winning a gold medal at Olympics was now a reality.

The way the queen of badminton, Susi Susanti, dismantled her opponent Bang-So Hyun in the final of 1992 Olympics, was a sight to behold. She played like a ballerina performing butterfly moves on a badminton court. Every time Bang-So Hyun threatened to make a comeback, Susanti would play the cross court smashes to keep her check. Finally, she would put finishing touches to her masterclass with some brilliant net play. To her credit, Bang-So-Hyun took Susanti to the third game. But everyone knew, only one player was going to win that final and that was Susi Susanti.

After winning the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, Susanti went onto dominate the badminton scene for almost a decade. She won the All-England Championships four times. A five-time winner of World Badminton Grand Prix Championships from 1990 to 1994. She also won various other badminton Grand Prix series and World Cups. She bravely even led the Indonesian team to triumph at the Uber Cup in 1994, as well as in 1996. Susanti though, had to be satisfied with just a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics.

She was rightfully inducted into the International Badminton Federation Hall of Fame in May 2004 (presently BWF). Another high point was the Herbert Scheele Trophy award that she received from the IBF Council in 2002, for her outstanding and exceptional services to badminton.

Susanti’s badminton career wasn’t just about all those great achievements, as she had to struggle a lot to make it big. After secondary school, she had to leave her family, and live at a dormitory. She had to take this extreme step, as she wanted to enroll at a school that was only for athletes.

Even after representing her country and winning so many medals at various major events, lack of monetary benefits meant that she had to struggle a lot. Just to support her family, Susanti and her husband, Alan Budi Kusuma – a former gold medal winner at Olympics himself, had to pool their resources to establish a sports equipment corporation called as Astec.

Susanti said about her struggles: “It is impossible to be a badminton world champion if you do not put your heart and mind in your goal. I even gave up my tertiary education because I could not concentrate on my game while studying for exams.” She added: “But I have no regrets. How else could I contribute to my country while achieving my dream at the same time?”

Susi Susanti was an amazing player to watch. On a badminton court, she was like Mozart, who wrote beautiful symphonies with a badminton racquet in her hand. To make it worse for her opponents, she combined substance with style. Susi Susanti’s fascinating story also tells us that just raw talent isn’t enough to succeed at the highest level. Only with hard work, dogged determination, perseverance and a never-say-die attitude, can one make it to the top.