ACOG - News - IBM

(19 July 1996)

Indonesians Expected to Dominate Badminton Competition

Spectators for the Olympic badminton competition may witness the beginning of a dynasty.

Indonesia took home five medals from the 1992 Olympic Games' inaugural badminton tournament in Barcelona, including the gold medals in both men's and women's singles. But one year does not make an Olympic dynasty. However, Indonesia may well repeat its success. The country boasts six singles competitors or doubles pairs seeded first, second or third in this year's Olympic Games. In men's singles, four of the top six competitors in IBF's latest rankings are Indonesian, as are five of the top eight men's doubles pairs.

Both men's singles gold medalist Allan BUDI KASUMA and women's singles gold medalist Susi SUSANTI will return to Olympic competition. KASUMA received the No. 6 seed and moved up to No. 4 in the latest IBF rankings. SUSANTI holds a No. 2 seed and a No. 3 IBF ranking. The top-seeded men's singles player Joko SUPRIANTO and men's doubles pair of Ricky SUBAGJA and Rexy MAINAKY will also compete for Indonesia. However, since a country may only bring three competitors per flight, Indonesia will be competing without 1992 men's singles silver medalist Ardy WIRANATA (IBF No. 6) and 1992 bronze medalist Hermawan SUSANTO (IBF No. 14).

Indonesia is not without stiff competition, however. China, Korea and Denmark all sport strong teams as well. China and Korea combined for nine of the 16 badminton medals awarded at Barcelona.

Korea has the top-seeded mixed doubles pair in PARK Joo Bong and RA Kyung Min and the top-seeded women's doubles team of GIL Young Ah and JANG Hye Ock. Third-seeded women's singles player BANG Soo Hyun, ranked No. 2 by the IBF, will also represent Korea.

China boasts the No. 1 seed in women's singles, YE Zhaoying, and the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in women's doubles, GE Fei and GU Jun and QIN Yiyuan and TANG Yongshu, respectively. Fourth-seeded men's singles player DONG Jiong, rated No. 1 by the IBF, will also compete for China.

Sweden's LIM Xiaoqing, who was fifth in IBF's latest rankings, was forced to withdraw from competition due to a knee injury.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Dena Monahan.


Olympic Factoid
More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined.