Badminton holds a special place in Indonesia, both as a popular sport and a source of national pride.
The country has a rich history in the sport, with many Indonesian players throughout generations have achieved international success.
And these successes came from tears, blood and a lot of sacrifices.
And this time, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung Cahyaningsih, an Indonesian badminton player in women's singles, managed to win bronze.
She is a pride to her country. But a major publication is making it seem that her victory is a disgrace.
In response to the publication, the news agency received not only backlash, but also mockery and hate.
Gregoria, born in 1999, started her career at the badminton club PB Mutiara Cardinal in Bandung, West Java.
At the tender age of 14, in 2013, she was included in the national team, and that in 2017, she was the girls' singles champion at the 2017 World Junior Championships.
Despite being a junior champion, she experienced quite a tumultuous career in later years.
She was qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the sole Indonesian representative in women's singles, but her debut in the Olympics ended in the round of 16, when she was defeated by Ratchanok Intanon.
Regardless, in 2022, at the Asia Team Championships, she captained the Indonesia women's team, and that she and her teammate emerged champions.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Gregoria was selected as a member of the Indonesian women's team.
However, during her match against Carolina Marin, the Spanish player retired from her semi-final match against He Bingjiao from China due to a right knee injury.
Consequently, because the bronze medal match was canceled, Gregoria was automatically awarded the bronze medal.
And here, MetroTV, an Indonesian free-to-air television news network that is owned by Surya Paloh, a businessman who is also a politician, reported Gregoria's medal as a "giveaway" on live television and on a post on its website, social media and YouTube.
For sure, and sooner than later, this report from the news agency was received badly by many Indonesians.
Many condemned the report, calling MetroTV being disrespectful.
They also demand it to make a direct apology to Gregoria.
After all, being in the semi-finals means that Gregoria was first in the group, which was Group G, when she competed against Polina Buhrova from Ukraine and Tereza Švábíková from Czech Republic..
It also means that Gregoria won Round of 16 when she competed against Kim Ga-eun from South Korea, won the quarter-finals against Ratchanok Intanon from Thailand, and won the first semi-finals against An Se-young from South Korea.
In other words, Gregoria had passed a long way to reach the second semi-finals.
Despite not winning the bronze medal by competing, she made it there with a lot of efforts, and also wins.
And with the medal being called a "giveaway" by a local news agency, sparked anger by many of her fans and spectators.
As a result of this, Gregoria and MetroTV become trending topic on various social media platforms.
MetroTV responded by taking down the post and the YouTube video.
