Gregoria Mariska’s story of realizing her dream with Pitha Mentari to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics

JAKARTA – The friendship between two Indonesian badminton players has recently attracted public attention. The two are Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari.

Via social media In the upload, the two of them dream of being able to play together at the 2024 Paris Olympics in July-August.

Their wish has now come true, with Gregoria qualifying for Paris in the women’s singles event, while Pitha is in the mixed doubles sector with Rinov Rivaldy. This moment clearly made them happy because their struggle during the Olympic qualifications ended sweetly.

“We were at the French Open and my intention was that while I was in France I had never been to Notre Dame, right? So I and Tari – Pitha’s nickname – took the metro to get there. There was a time when we got lost but didn’t know that there was a building like that there. “Ministry of Sports or something like that, but there is a Paris 2024 banner, there is an Olympic Ring,” said Gregoria when met at the PBSI National Training Center, Wednesday (17/4/2024).

“When I was there, I said to Tari, ‘let’s take a photo here’, it seemed like all the Olympic athletes never missed it. We really wanted to play at the 2024 Olympics, so we invited Tari to take a photo there. (At that time) hopefully we could play at the 2024 Olympics because of that. “Our dream at that time, I’m sure, will be the motivation to be able to photograph the Olympic Ring at the Olympic Village,” he continued.

In particular, Pitha felt a tough struggle, whose fate was determined in the last tournament, the 2024 Badminton Asia Championships. Even during the European tour last month, Pitha and Rinov had to work very hard so that they could still qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Gregoria did not initially know this in detail. The reason is, he himself is also struggling to ensure he passes. However, he did not realize that the European tour that Rinov/Pitha went on for five weeks had actually had a big influence.

Rinov/Pitha were willing to not take part in the All England and chose to compete in a lower level tournament, namely the Orleans Masters 2024, which succeeded in increasing their points. Even the title of champion at the 2024 Spain Masters further distances them from their competitors. Moreover, Rinov/Pitha’s position before the European tour at that time was very vulnerable.

“Honestly, I just realized how intense they are on the European tour. Because as far as I know, no matter what, the highest position will be taken. I don’t know if it has to be in 13th position, it can’t be this, it can’t be that because of continental needs. I just “You know, in Europe, Tari has to be this big so that the points are this different. If this guy wins, what round does Tari have to go to, because that’s really what it is,” said Gregoria.

“So last time I didn’t want to ask Tari too many questions, because I had to deal with it and if it happened she would get a headache. But when she won and her position was safe enough for her and Rinov, that was a relief. But I don’t know, it turns out in those five weeks he was that struggling,” he added.