Indonesia badminton pair spied on China duo before beating them to gold at Tokyo Olympics
- Book reveals how Indonesians watched Chinese opponents Jia Yifan and Chen Qingchen practising on eve of gold medal match
Indonesian badminton gold medallist Greysia Polii has revealed she and her women’s doubles partner Apriyani Rahayu spied on their Chinese rivals the night before they claimed a shock victory at the Tokyo Olympics.
Polii and Rahayu beat the heavily fancied Chinese pairing of Jia Yifan and Chen Qingchen at the Games in 2021, to seal their country’s first gold of that Olympics and its first medal in women’s doubles.
The revelations in a recently published biography of Polii, Menembus Garis Batas – Breaking Through Boundaries, have sparked a flurry of outrage on Chinese social media, with some also questioning the timing of the story.
Excerpts of the book were posted on X on Friday by Ainur Rohman, of sports website fantasista.id.
In her account, Polii describes how the Indonesians found themselves watching live images of their opponents practising on the eve of the gold medal clash because there were cameras at the training venue “capturing almost all sides of the court they were using”.
