Feeling Underestimated by the Government, Women’s Basketball National Team Proves it with SEA Games Gold

– The Indonesian women’s basketball national team (timnas) is one of the sports that the government underestimates. This is because women’s basketball is not included in the priority sports category and is considered to have no chance of getting a gold medal.

This was said by the Captain of the Indonesian Women’s Basketball National Team, Henny Sutjiono when invited to the Deddy Corbuzier Podcast.

“For nine months during the training camp (TC) in Surabaya, there was no financial assistance from the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora),” he said as quoted from Youtube Deddy Corbuzier on Wednesday (24/5/2023).

Due to minimal assistance from the government, in the end the Indonesian Women’s Basketball Manager, Christopher Tanuwidjaja, spent his own money or looked for sponsors for TC costs. This is exacerbated by the absence of women’s basketball league competition for the last two years.

“As for support, women’s basketball is lacking when compared to men’s basketball, especially when it comes from the government,” he added.

The government’s lack of attention to the women’s basketball team has been shown since the 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam. At that time, Henny understood it was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But it turns out that until the preparations for the 2023 SEA Games, the Indonesian government has never shown any concern.

“Our managers do everything at their own expense. Nothing from the government. Managers are looking for and disbursing their own funds,” explained Henny.

The 29-year-old basketball player said that previously the government had always paid for it. However, after the pandemic, the government did not finance it because those who are supported by sports have the opportunity to win gold medals.

The lack of attention from the government actually became a motivation for Henny and her friends to prove that women’s basketball can also win SEA Games gold medals.

As a result, the women’s basketball national team made history at the 2023 SEA Games by winning a gold medal for the first time in the 64-year history of this multi-event tournament between Southeast Asian countries.

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