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| This silver means I’m still on the right track, says Audina |
Athens: Eight years after Atlanta, the colour of Mia Audina’s Olympics medal may be the same — silver. Just about everything else in her life is different. The badminton player who won her first Olympic medal in Atlanta as a 16-year-old prodigy for Indonesia earned second place on Thursday as a seasoned adult for her adopted country, The Netherlands.
What lies in between is a story that ties The Netherlands with its former colonies in Asia and South America, family heartbreak, devout belief, and love of sport that binds all.
“This medal means that I am still on the right track. And after all these years it is something which is not that easy to say,” Audina said.
Badminton is to the 210 million Indonesians what soccer is to Brazil and baseball to the United States. And, as a teenager, there was none better than Audina. Susi Susanti became a national icon when she won badminton’s first gold in Barcelona in 1992. When Audina gave Indonesia the vital point to win the world team Uber Cup in 1994 as a mere 14-year old, Susanti’s succession seemed assured.
Two years later, she gave Indonesia silver in Atlanta to become the youngest Olympic medallist in the sport. Then things started to go badly wrong for her.
A deeply religious woman, she went to church one day to listen to Tylio Lobman, a Dutch-born Christian gospel singer whose heritage is from Suriname — like Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. It was love at first sight. There was opposition to the international relationship and the media, centring on their superstar, kept on glaring.
Within her family too, rifts emerged. Then Audina’s mother got sick and she spent months caring for her, neglecting the ruthless training regimen top badminton players have to maintain.Her mother died in 1999 and soon afterward the Indonesian badminton federation removed her from the team.
“She is great. So open and totally Dutch,” said fan Fer van der Hurk.
“Not too many people can say that they have given two different countries silver,” Mia said.
