People Innovation Excellence

The Struggle of Indonesian Athletes

Being a taekwondo and basketball athlete while studying full-time at university, Stevandy shares his thoughts about the struggle of athletes in Indonesia.


Have you ever seen Indonesian athletes who go international and play in International league? Actually there are a lot of Indonesian athletes who can perform well both in National league and International Tournament, but why we rarely see them go international and even though in national tournament we cannot see them through media like TV station. Most of famous TV Stations don’t even show live record about national tournament about sports and most of athletes in Indonesia aren’t even as famous as Indonesian celebrities. There are some reasons why Indonesian athletes can’t go international or be as famous as Indonesian celebrities and it will be discussed below.

One of the most important or common knowledge why Indonesian athletes can’t go international or famous is Indonesian athletes aren’t supported by the government itself, so they have to struggle a lot to find some sponsors to help them to go to international tournaments. And that’s why most of Indonesian athletes do not go international because they can’t find some sponsor to help them. But after they have found a sponsor to help them and go international, and they have won one championship or tournament that they have competed in, the government asks some money from the prize that the athletes have won, because mostly the people from the government said that it is illegal to bring your country’s name and you don’t give some percentages from your prize to your country. And because of that reason, most of Indonesian athletes don’t want to go international as Indonesian athletes, some of them prefer to change their citizenship and go for international competitions. Even though some athlete have been supported by the government, and when they won the international and bring pride to their country, Indonesia to international face they still haven’t got anything from the government despite they have to share the price to the government too and it is so different with athletes from other country which is supported by their government, even their national athletes have been paid by the government and by the sponsor too.

Stevandy Clawira (left)
Stevandy Clawira (left)

Another reason why most of Indonesian athletes don’t go for international competitions is because most of Indonesian athletes are lack of information about competitions that are being hold by international organization. And because of that, some of Indonesian Athletes who are capable enough or have some skills that are as good as International athletes cannot compete on International competition. But again, when a sponsor who can provide an Athlete to compete on international competition, the government which is Indonesian government who doesn’t help anything about the competition that the athlete compete in always try to drag both the sponsor and the athlete to the law by saying that contract between Athlete and sponsor is an illegal thing to do.

The last but not the least reason why Indonesian athletes cannot go or compete on international competition is because lack of Supports from Indonesian people or the country itself. Supports are really important for athlete, when some people giving their supports towards an athlete. It’s like give more spirits to them, and that’s why when people from their own country do not supports them, their spirit to compete on international competition going down. And when their spirit going down most of the athletes don’t want to compete on international competition anymore and that is one of several reason why Indonesian athletes aren’t going to International competition.

In conclusion there are several reason why Indonesian athlete aren’t going to compete in International not only because they are not capable enough but, there are some reason why Indonesian athletes should think twice or thrice to going on international competition.

Published at :
Written By
Stevandy Clawira & Abdul Aziz Turhan
Student & Lecturer | BINUS University English Department
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  1. Superbly ilimniuatlng data here, thanks!

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