Indonesian ice dancer Dwiki Eka Ramadhan is chasing his Olympic dream while nurturing the next generation as a coach in a tropical nation unaccustomed to winter sports.
by Dames Alexander Sinaga
JAKARTA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Like any athlete in ice sports, Indonesia's professional ice dancer Dwiki Eka Ramadhan dreams of one day competing in the Winter Olympic Games.
In February, Ramadhan, 27, and his current partner, Tasya Putri, 25, competed at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin. This was the second time they had participated in the quadrennial multi-sport event.
As Indonesia's sole ice dance representatives, they scored 35.51 points in the rhythm dance and 54.63 in the free dance, finishing sixth overall with 90.14 points. Gold medals went to Japan's Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, while China's Ren Junfei and Xing Jianing took silver, and Azusa Tanaka and Shingo Nishiyama of Japan rounded out the medal placings.
Still, for Ramadhan, merely competing at the event was a source of great joy.
"Indonesia is not a country that has had ice skating as a sport for a long time, so the important thing for us is to continue to give a great impression," he said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
"I was also grateful for being chosen to become a flag bearer representing my country during the opening ceremony. I really feel proud of that," added Ramadhan, who in 2014 became the first Indonesian to compete at an international figure skating competition.
Ramadhan started figure skating at 10 and made his name on the international stage seven years later after being chosen to represent Indonesia at the (ISU) Junior Grand Prix in Japan and Germany in 2014.
Ramadan, who now masters triple jumps, used to fight tooth and nail to get better at ice skating.
"I trained independently with available resources in Indonesia. But during school holidays, I joined professional ice skating summer camps overseas," said the Jakarta native, who still dreams of competing at the Winter Olympic Games.
Some of his biggest ambitions include improving his students and encouraging more Indonesians to become figure skaters.
"Surely, all athletes would love to be at the Winter Olympics, right? They definitely want to be there," smiled Ramadan, who has been coaching since 2019 along with his partner Putri.
At present, he has 16 students under his charge. One of them is Rafif Herfianto Putra, a 16-year-old high school student from Bali who competed at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Thailand last year.
"I moved here in 2023 with the motivation of getting proper training," said Putra, who is now aiming for the ISU World Junior Championships, the Asian Winter Games and the Southeast Asian Games. His favourite figure skaters include Alysa Liu from the U.S., Shin Ji-a of South Korea, and China's Wang Yihan.
Putra, who is now learning triple jumps, is training intensively six days a week while juggling his studies online.
"Of course, this is such a painful effort and hard work, but I really hope this will be fruitful for me and my country in the future," he said. ■
