Susi Susanti Haditono: a true legend of badminton in Indonesia
Some personalities are born with inbuilt qualities showing talent in their respective fields. Lucia Francisca Susi Susanti, a Chinese player who being Chinese represented Indonesia throughout her career, is one of those personalities. Thus, she can be regarded
as a Chinese Indonesian player. She was born in Tasikmalaya in 1971. She is categorized among the top players of badminton in the women’s category. She is remembered because of her quickness while playing and elegance in her techniques. She always combined
her courage and stamina with agility and quickness while playing the matches against her opponents.
She introduced herself in the badminton arena in early 90’s and from the beginning started ruling the women’s wing with attitude and style. Among the remarkable of her early achievements was her grasping the gold medal of Olympics in Summer Olympics 1992
held in Barcelona. The shiny side of this award was that it was the first ever highest award won by any female in the history of badminton in Olympics.
Susi Susanti had also many bright feathers in her future of badminton even before winning the Olympics title in 1992. Before this she had represented Indonesia in the All England in 1990 and had won the title. Moreover, she had defended her title for complete
five times and it was done without missing any year. She retained the title with her from 1990 to 1994, an overall 5 times winner of the Grand Prix final. And after losing the title in 1995, she again got control over the title in 1996, thus a six time All
England Champion.
Susi Susanti also locked IBF World Championships held in 1993 in her name. What to speak of the triumphs, she is the only female player in any sort of game who has in her cupboard the Olympics, the World Championship, the All England, the Japan Open and
Indonesian Open.
An interesting habit of Susi Susanti was that when she won any title she held it strongly and tried not to loose it as long as she played badminton. That is why, she won almost every title either twice, thrice or even 5 times. For example she won All England
five times, she won Japan Open three times, she won Indonesian Open five times and the counting goes on. She along with high ranking achievements also won many Grand Prix Series events and badminton world cups. Other than Gold medal at the Olympics she has
also in her record a Bronze medal in Olympics in 1996 held in United States. She has a highest credit in her side that she under her leading career of victories defeated the continuous winners of this title from china in Uber Cup (women’s team event) in 1994
and 1996.
All the said achievements were made against tough competitors of the badminton court. Her main rival of the court were Chinese Huang Hua Ye Zhaoying and Tang Jiuhong from china and Bang Soo-hyun from Korea. For her work in badminton she was introduced in
Badminton World Federation Hall of Fame in 2004. She retired after her marriage with a badminton player of same exposure. She is now running a badminton club with her husband and a racquet company named Astec. Though she has been retired but yet she is remembered
in the badminton dome with high remarks.