In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 11 August 1987
- Birthplace
- Jakarta
- Country
- Indonesia
- Nationality
- Indonesian
- Known for
- Winning Indonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles gold medal
- Olympic title
- Women’s doubles, Tokyo 2020
- Olympic partner
- Apriyani Rahayu
- Asian Games title
- Women’s doubles, 2014
- Retired
- 12 June 2022
Why this life matters
Greysia Polii turned setbacks, changing partnerships and unusual longevity into Indonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles title and a later role representing athletes in badminton governance.
Timeline
Key moments
Faced an Olympic disqualification
Was disqualified with Meiliana Jauhari in London during a group-stage controversy involving four pairs.
Won the Asian Games
Captured women’s doubles gold with Nitya Krishinda Maheswari in Incheon.
Formed a partnership with Apriyani Rahayu
Began competing with Rahayu; BWF listed the pairing at the Denmark Open that October.
Earned two world bronzes
The pair reached the World Championships semifinals in consecutive editions.
Won Olympic gold in Tokyo
Defeated Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan to secure Indonesia’s first women’s doubles Olympic title.
Retired at Istora Senayan
Announced the end of her professional playing career at Istora Senayan on 12 June.
Three Olympic campaigns, not one straight ascent
Greysia Polii’s Olympic record spans three Games and three doubles partnerships. She played women’s doubles with Meiliana Jauhari at London 2012, with Nitya Krishinda Maheswari at Rio 2016 and with Apriyani Rahayu at the Tokyo Games held in 2021. Olympedia records those results as a disqualification, a joint-fifth finish and a gold medal respectively. That sequence is more informative than treating the Tokyo title as an isolated breakthrough.
London was a difficult and public early chapter. The Badminton World Federation reported that four women’s doubles pairs were disqualified after trying to gain an advantage in the next round by not making their best efforts to win final group matches. Polii and Jauhari were one of those pairs. The ruling concerned the pairs’ conduct in a particular competition; it did not end Polii’s international career. Her subsequent results, rather than an assumed account of her private feelings about 2012, show the extent of the return.
Asian Games gold and another Olympic quarter-final
With Maheswari, Polii won women’s doubles gold at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. The title was a major result for a partnership that later represented Indonesia at Rio 2016. Olympedia lists their Olympic finish as equal fifth, consistent with a quarter-final exit. Their Asian Games success should not be confused with the later Olympic gold: it came with a different partner, at a different event, seven years before Tokyo.
Polii’s career also included work representing players. The BWF’s 2013 annual report records that athletes elected her to its Athletes’ Commission. That role belongs in the story because the latter part of her career was not only about medal results. The available federation record establishes her election; it does not by itself demonstrate the outcomes of every later commission proposal or justify treating her as the sole voice of badminton athletes.
A new pairing earns world medals
By October 2017 the BWF was listing Polii with Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles competition. Their partnership brought together players at different career stages, but its progress can be measured without inventing a simple mentor-and-student narrative. They won the 2018 India Open, with BWF match coverage recording a straight-games final victory over Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
The pair then earned bronze at the World Championships in both 2018 and 2019. BWF annual reports independently record each result. Those medals did not make them world champions, nor do they prove an inevitable Olympic win; they show consistent competitiveness against the international field before Tokyo. The tournament-by-tournament record helps explain why the eventual title belonged to a sustained partnership rather than a single unexpected week.
Tokyo gold and a public farewell
At Tokyo 2020, staged in 2021 after the pandemic postponement, Polii and Rahayu won the women’s doubles gold medal. BWF called it Indonesia’s first Olympic gold in that event. Polii had been born in August 1987, so she was 33 at the time of the Games; the more consequential point is that she won the title in her third Olympic appearance, after the 2012 disqualification and the 2016 quarter-final finish. Rahayu was not merely a supporting figure in that result: both athletes won the doubles title together.
Polii announced her retirement as a professional player on 12 June 2022 at Istora Senayan in Jakarta. Indonesia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports reported the farewell and venue. Her playing record therefore has a clear end point, rather than an implied departure immediately after the Olympic medal. The London, Incheon, Rio and Tokyo chapters belong together: they show how a long doubles career crossed several partnerships, major defeats and successes before ending with the sport’s highest Olympic prize.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Greysia Polii
- Who is Greysia Polii?
- Greysia Polii is an olympic badminton champion. Greysia Polii turned setbacks, changing partnerships and unusual longevity into Indonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles title and a later role representing athletes in badminton governance.
- What is Greysia Polii best known for?
- Greysia Polii is best known for winning Indonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles gold medal.
- When and where was Greysia Polii born?
- Greysia Polii was born on 11 August 1987 in Jakarta.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Apriyani Rahayu
Read about the partner who shared Indonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles title.
- Liliyana Natsir
Compare another Indonesian Olympic doubles champion in a different event.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. OlympediaGreysia Polii Olympic record
Olympedia separates Polii’s London disqualification, Rio joint-fifth result and Tokyo gold by partner; these were three distinct Olympic campaigns.
- 2. Badminton World FederationIndonesia’s first Olympic women’s doubles gold
- 3. Ministry of Youth and SportsGreysia Polii announces retirement
- 4. Badminton World FederationBWF Annual Report 2012: London disqualifications
The BWF describes the four-pair London ruling as failure to make best efforts to win final group matches; the account does not infer an individual private motive beyond the ruling.
- 5. Badminton World FederationBWF Annual Report 2013: Athletes’ Commission election
- 6. Badminton World FederationAsian Games 2014 review
- 7. Badminton World FederationDenmark Open 2017 preview
- 8. Badminton World FederationIndia Open 2018 women’s doubles final
- 9. Badminton World Federation2018 World Championships medal table
- 10. Badminton World Federation2019 World Championships medal table
- 11. Wikimedia CommonsGreysia Polii portrait and licence record
The local 767-by-807 photograph retains the complete Commons crop frame. Commons identifies photographer Yogwi21, an extraction from a wider 2013 French Open match photo, and CC BY-SA 4.0 reuse terms.
