Indonesian gymnast Rifda Irfanartfi swings between the uneven bars, palms covered in chalk, during an intensive training session just weeks before she makes history at the Paris Olympics.
The 24-year-old is the first Indonesian gymnast and first woman to qualify for the Olympics, and she is determined to arrive in Paris in top form to etch her name into her country’s gymnastics folklore.
“I’m excited. I hope that by qualifying for the Olympics the world will get to know Indonesia better,” she told AFP after training in the capital, Jakarta.
“I’ve had trouble sleeping for the past five days due to anxiety caused by my injury.”
Her achievement is all the more impressive given that Indonesia still does not have a national training centre for gymnastics and that much of conservative Indonesian society, including major sports, remains dominated by men.
The archipelago’s craze is centered mainly around soccer and badminton, the only sport to have won an Olympic gold medal.
So for Lifda to succeed as a gymnast, it took more than just talent — she also needed the dedication to overcome a series of hurdles, including a lack of support.
“I continue to practice and prove that you can be a successful athlete even with limited facilities,” she said.
“People still underestimated us.”
Rifda’s family struggled to find a school that would accept and support something as foreign to them as gymnastics.
Her luck changed when she enrolled at an athlete’s school in Jakarta, bringing her one step closer to her Olympic dream.
– “Dream Higher” –
Lifda started swimming as a child and later tried her hand at diving, sport climbing, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic gymnastics.
Her mother, Yulis Andriana, said Rifda had attracted attention as a talented gymnast and won her first medal at the Singapore Junior Championships at the age of eight.
Lifda won the vault, floor exercise, uneven bars and balance beam at last year’s World Gymnastics Championships in Belgium, qualifying her to compete in the Olympics, which run from July 26 to August 11.
“Her desire to become a champion is incredible,” her mother, Ulises, said.
Rihda hopes her Olympic success will inspire other young Indonesians to pursue their dreams and compete against gymnastics powerhouses from the United States, former Soviet republics and other countries.
“Maybe it will inspire athletes my age who have never qualified for the Olympics to dream higher,” she said.
With Indonesia having been awarded the right to host the World Gymnastics Championships for the first time in 2025, artistic gymnastics is expected to grow in Indonesia, but there is still a long way to go.
“Gymnastics needs to be improved across the board,” Indonesian Olympic Committee president Raja Sapta Oktohari told AFP.
But now that the sport is gaining attention, “the opportunities for women are much greater,” he said.
Indonesia’s Olympic medal haul is small, but it is influenced by the female athletes who came before Rihda.
The first Olympic medal was a silver medal won by the women’s archery team at the 1988 Seoul Games, while two of badminton’s eight gold medals were won by the women’s shuttlers at the 1992 Barcelona Games and the women’s doubles pair at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The Indonesian rhythmic gymnastics queen is hoping to join that exclusive list, but she still needs treatment for her injured knee.
Despite the setback, she hopes to recover in time to do well in Paris, make history and return home with some well-deserved sweets.
“Ice cream, strawberry flavor,” she said with a smile.
