Susi Susanti

Career

She won the women's singles gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain and the bronze medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, United States. She retired from the world badminton circuit not long after her marriage to Alan Budikusuma (who had also won a badminton singles gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics) in February 1997. Susanti was the most dominant women's singles player in the first half of the 1990s, winning the All-England in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994, the World Badminton Grand Prix finale five times consecutively from 1990 to 1994 as well as in 1996, and the IBF World Championships in 1993. She is the only female player to hold the Olympic, World Championship, and All-England singles titles simultaneously. She won the Japan Open three times and the Indonesian Open five times. She also won numerous Badminton Grand Prix Series events and five Badminton World Cups. She led the Indonesian team to victory over perennial champion China in the 1994 and 1996 Uber Cup (women's world team) competitions. All of this came during a relatively strong period in women's international badminton. Her chief competitors early in her prime years were the Chinese players Tang Jiuhong and Huang Hua, and, later, China's Ye Zhaoying and the Korean star Bang Soo-hyun.

Susanti was inducted into the International Badminton Federation (IBF, currently BWF) Hall of Fame in May 2004, and received the Herbert Scheele Trophy in 2002.

Personal life

She is married to Alan Budikusuma (Chinese: 魏仁芳), a men's badminton Olympic gold medalist (also in 1992) and one of the top men's players in the history of the sport, a former Chinese Indonesian badminton player who excelled at the world level from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Together they have three children Lourencia Averina, born 1999, Albertus Edward, born in 2000 and Sebastianus Frederick, born in 2003. Alan and Susi have a badminton club in Jakarta Utara. Winning an olympic gold medal was historical for Indonesia, achieving the first Olympic gold medals in 50 years history of the country. Some estimated a crowd of at least 500,000; others estimated more than a million Indonesians were lining the streets of the massive, sprawling city of Jakarta when Susi Susanti and Alan Budikusuma came home in August 1992 and received a two-hour parade. They stood in an open car with leis and Olympic gold medals around their necks and inched toward the national monument in Merdeka square, on Sudirman, the main street, they could hardly move; it was jammed with people all shouting congratulations to the new badminton hero's.

In 2004, Susy and Alan established ASTEC (Alan and Susy Technology), a sport equipment corporation, to support their family. They use materials from Japan for the rackets and produced them in China. This brand has been growing up lately and marketed in most area in Indonesia. Beside ASTEC, the woman who was born in Tasikmalaya on February 11, 1971 also opened a foot reflexology and sports physiotherapy center, “Fontana”. For this business, she works together with a former Indonesian badminton player, Elizabeth Latief. Now Fontana has four branches, three in Jakarta: Kelapa Gading, Sunter, Pondok Indah, plus one in Bogor.

Olympic Games

1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain

1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States of America

World Badminton Grand Prix Finals

Southeast Asian Games

Open Tournaments