Susi Susanti

Susi Susanti
Personal information
Birth name	Lucia Francisca Susi Susanti
Country	Indonesia
Born	(1971-02-11) 11 February 1971 Tasikmalaya, West Java
Height	1.61 m (5 ft 3 in)
Handedness	Right
Women's singles
Highest ranking	1

Lucia Francisca Susi Susanti (Chinese: 王蓮香, born in Tasikmalaya, West Java on 11 February 1971^[1]) is a retired Indonesian badminton player. Relatively small of stature, she combined quick and graceful movement with elegant shotmaking technique, and rates among the most successful players in the history of the women's game. Sometimes her name is also spelled Susy 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.

Life after competitive badminton

She ran a badminton racket company branded as "Astec" ("Alan-Susi Technology") with her husband, Alan Budikusuma after retirement. Now they run a badminton club in North Jakarta.

External links

• Setelah Sepuluh Tahun Gantung Raket (Indonesian)
• Susi Susanti Sempat Tidak Tahu Masuk Daftar Rekor dunia (Indonesian)

References

1. ↑ olympic.org