President Instructs Minister of Youth and Sports to Prioritize Favorable Sports

Photo Caption: President Jokowi poses with gold medalists of 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games Tontowi Yahya and Liliyana Natsir, and silver medalists Sri Wahyuni and Eko Yuli on Wednesday (24/ 8), at the State Palace, Jakarta

On behalf of all Indonesian people, and the Government, President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo congratulated and thanked all Indonesian athletes for their struggles  at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

The President considered that the Indonesian contingent has fought and given their best results. “We won 2 medals (one silver and one bronze) in the 2012 London Olympic Games, but now we won 2 silver and 1 gold medals,” President Jokowi said when receiving Indonesian Olympic contingent on Wednesday (24/8), at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta.

The achievement of the Indonesian athletes at this year’s Olympics shows a long journey of hard work and all number of sports have managed their planning well; it does not come overnight, the President stated.

Therefore, President Jokowi instructed Minister of Youth and Sports to focus on prioritizing sports that show good achievements, be it by providing infrastructures, facilities, as well as training camp and national training center.

“I think if we implement it with a good long-term planning, I believe we can win more gold medals, not only in sports that we once won but also in other sports that have not yet contributed medals,” the President said.

However, the President added that we do not have to be focused on everything, just focus on the areas and sports that are possible to win medals and we have to take into account the budget.

“I have already instructed Minister of Youth and Sports to prioritize and focus on the sports that mostly can win medals in the Olympic or the Asian Games,” President Jokowi added.

The entourage of Indonesian Olympic contingent was paraded from the Ministry of Youth and Sports Office to the State Palace by an open-top double decker bus which is sent directly from Bandung.

After being received by the President, the athletes and officials had a nice talk in the front room of the Merdeka Palace and they took a group photo.

For the record, Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir clinched an Olympic gold medal in badminton mixed doubles, while weightlifters Sri Wahyuni and Eko Yuli won two silver medals.

Ministry of Youth and Sports Imam Nahrawi, Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki, Indonesian Chef de Mission for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Raja Sapta Oktohari, Taufik Hidayat, as well as Gita Wiryawan attended the event.(FID/ES) (RAS/EP/YM/Naster)