A true story from IPhO (International Physics Olympiad) 2006 in Singapore…
During medals awarding, we sat next to ambassadors from various countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and many more countries. The competition hosted hundreds of students from 86 countries. When honorable participants mention was announced, there was no Indonesian student. Ambassadors from several countries asked Indonesian ambassador for Singapore on why there’s no Indonesian student. He just smiled, softly.
Jonathan Pradhana Mailoa
Then winners were called one by one, the bronze medalist. Students from the Philippines, Thailand, Kazakhstan and so on were called to come to stage. Again, several ambassadors asked Indonesian ambassador for Singapore… Why no Indonesian students? He smiled again. And he congratulated the ambassadors whose student from their countries won the medals.
Now the Silver medalist. The presenter then mentioned a very typical Indonesian name. One small Indonesian with black cap on his head came to the stage. He was Muhammad Firmansyah Kasim waving a small red-white flag. He won the silver bronze, the sole silver medalist. Not few people were surprised.
The most awaited time for Gold medalist. The presenter announced that there were 4 (yes four) winners, and all came from… Indonesia. Four Indonesian students with black cap on their heads came to the stage and they were holding small flags with them, yes red-white. It was so touching moment.
Nope, it did not stop there. The presenter then announce that “the overall champion of the International Physics Olympiad XXXVII is……. Jonathan Pradhana Mailoa!”. Everyone jumped. Chilling goose bumps. Everyone began to stand, echoing applause for a very long time with standing ovation.
Almost all Indonesian people who attended the ceremony could no longer hold the tears from falling. Tears of joy, tears of emotion .Tears of pride as part of great Indonesia.
All fatigues disappeared immediately.
After the ceremony, everyone was greeted. People from Kazakhtan hugged tightly, saying “Wonderful job!”. Malaysian greeted and said “You did a great job!”. Taiwanese said: “Now is your turn…”. The Philippinos said, “Amazing…”. The Israelis said “Excellent work!”. The Portuguese: “Portugal is great in soccer but has to learn physics from Indonesia”. The Nigerian: “Would you come to Nigeria to train our students too?”. The Australian: “Great!”. Dutch people: “You did it!”. The Russians held their thumbs up. People hugged. The Iranian said, “Great… Wonderful!”. It was a very moving atmosphere… Words can’t describe.
This achievement echoed beyond ocean. A professor from Belgium sent an SMS, “The Echo of Indonesian Victory has reached Europe! Congratulations to the champions and their coaches for these amazing Successes!
Thank you, GNFI reader, for sharing this!
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Stefanus Aditya Utama
11 months ago
Congratulations to all contender especially ones from Indonesia…. you guys have proven that we, Indonesian can soar high into the future.
Alitha
11 months ago
Oh gosh… this brought me to tears. That was so inspiring. These people are seriously my true role models.
Udine
11 months ago
Though I would admite the person who wrote this story in order to lift up our national spririt, I wouldn’t say that this story is completely true. There were NOT just 4 gold medalists on that event in fact there’re 37. We’re quite competitive but quite sadly China got the most of Gold medals by snatching up 5 gold medals.
See the complete result of IPHO 2006 at:http://people.ksp.sk/~ppershing/whoami/sutaze/resultscache/2005_2006/ipho2006_gold.htm
Statistically China and India are dominant countries on IPHO event. See this wiki page to get access to other IPHO event since 1998:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Physics_Olympiad