"We commemorate this year's National Sports Day with a great record of achieving various medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic events," Jokowi said during a speech at the National Sports Day commemoration, which was broadcast on Youtube on Thursday.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Indonesia won five medals — one gold medal in women's doubles badminton, one silver medal in weightlifting, one bronze medal in men's singles badminton, one bronze medal in men's weightlifting, and one bronze medal in women's weightlifting.
Meanwhile, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, the Indonesian contingent collected a total of nine medals — one gold medal in women's doubles badminton, one gold medal in mixed doubles badminton, one silver medal in women's singles badminton, one silver medal in men's singles badminton, one silver medal in weightlifting, one bronze medal in athletics, one bronze medal in men's singles table tennis, and two bronze medals in men's singles badminton.
"Achievements that inspire the entire nation not only make us all proud, but also spur the birth of more brilliant sporting achievements in the future," the President added.
He lauded the athletes for their hard work and the perseverance of the coaches, who were able to hone great talents, thus securing Indonesia's position as a great nation through various sports achievements.
"We must continue to improve sports achievements. Achievements do not just appear, achievements are produced by a systematic and sustainable coaching process from upstream to downstream," Jokowi added.
He also urged everyone to focus on creating great talents in the field of sports.
"In order (for new, great athletes) to be born more and more, the more superior achievements that will make Indonesia proud internationally, which has great potential to win Olympic medals," Jokowi emphasized.
The President said that Indonesia actually has a lot of great athletes with potential.
"Badminton, weightlifting, rock climbing, archery, shooting, karate, taekwondo, bicycle racing, athletics, swimming, rowing and artistic gymnastics, as well as two other sports that need to be well prepared, being pencak silat and wushu," he added.
He then asked all stakeholders to collaborate and create an increasingly better sports industry.
"Organize various healthy sports competitions and spur achievements, find superior talents from an early age, so that they become a strong foundation for advancing the Indonesia sports world," Jokowi told them.
In the Grand Design of National Sports (DBON), there are 14 sport branches for the Olympics that are prioritized by the government, he noted. They are athletics, badminton, rock climbing, artistic gymnastics, weightlifting, bicycle racing, archery, shooting, swimming, rowing, karate, taekwondo, wushu, and martial arts.
In addition, there are also five sports branches prioritized for Paralympics, such as para-badminton, para-powerlifting, swimming, para-table tennis, and para-athletics.
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Translator: Desca L N, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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