Indonesia celebrates first Olympic golds outside badminton
Golden day in Paris for Southeast Asian nation as speed climber Veddriq Leonardo and weightlifter Rizki Juniansyah win.
Speed climber Veddriq Leonardo has handed Indonesia its first Olympic gold outside badminton after sprinting up a 15-metre wall to beat his Chinese rival by just two-hundredths of a second.
Veddriq’s gold was the first for Indonesia in the Paris Olympics, and the ninth since the country made its Olympic debut in 1952.
“I feel very happy, very joyful,” the 27-year-old said. “My heart raced [in the competition], but I stayed focused and finished it.”
Veddriq scaled the wall in 4.75 seconds, a personal best, to pip China’s Wu Peng for the top spot. His coach broke down in tears and Indonesian Sport Climbing Federation chairwoman Yenni Wahid said she was “so moved I could cry”.
As Indonesians celebrated Veddriq’s Olympic victory, 21-year-old Rizki Juniansyah delivered the country’s second gold of the day by winning the men’s 73kg weightlifting competition.
Juniansyah lifted a total of 354kg over the competition, winning the gold with an Olympic record clean and jerk of 199kg to beat his rivals from Thailand and Bulgaria.
Rizki said he was “happy, proud and very emotional” winning his first gold medal and thanked Indonesians for their support.
“There are no words that can describe how I am feeling,” the Jakarta Post reported the weightlifting as saying. “You saw me crying because it’s been such an emotional and beautiful experience and I am already looking toward the future.”
Speed climbing powerhouse
The Southeast Asian archipelago has become a major power in speed climbing, smashing records and nabbing multiple medals at top international events.
Veddriq, who was born in Pontianak in Indonesian Borneo and took up the sport after joining a student nature group that also did wall climbing, has won the sport’s World Cup three times and was the first speed climber to break the five-second barrier.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo was among the first to congratulate him for the gold writing on X that the speed climber’s achievement had brought “new pride to Indonesia”.
The country had previously won golds only in badminton.
“Words can hardly express how we feel. Praise be to God,” Veddriq’s mother Rosita Hamzah told broadcaster Kompas TV.
Sport climbing made its Olympics debut in Tokyo in 2021 but speed was controversially combined with the boulder and lead disciplines, which require completely different skill sets. Paris marks the first time speed specialists are competing in their own area of expertise.
“I am proud, very proud. The excitement was explosive,” Kristoforus Bagaskoro, a 41-year-old creative manager in the capital Jakarta, told the AFP news agency.
“We should hype up this sport more and help it develop even more.”
Sam Watson from the United States took bronze ahead of Iran’s Reza Alipour in the climb for third place, recording a world record 4.74 seconds.
