Why they rank here
Susi Susanti delivered Indonesia's first-ever Olympic gold medal of any kind at Barcelona 1992, winning the inaugural women's singles title on the same day her future husband Alan Budikusuma took the men's crown — a national fairy tale watched by a spellbound country. She added the 1993 World Championship and four All England titles (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994), and won the World Cup a record five times. Playing with metronomic consistency, tireless defence and an unbreakable competitive calm, she was the finest women's player of the early 1990s and the pioneer who proved the women's game could carry a nation's hopes. Her Barcelona gold remains one of the sport's most emotionally resonant moments and the foundation of Indonesia's badminton identity, and she is universally regarded as one of the greatest women ever to play the game.
Career profile
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