Papua Pegunungan or Papua Highland is one of the new provinces that was inaugurated as a division of Papua Province. After going through the administrative process and officially becoming a new province, Papua Pegunungan Province can bring athletes to make the province proud at the 21st National Sports Week which will be held in 2024 in Aceh and North Sumatra Provinces. One of the athletes competing representing Papua Pegunungan Province is a rower named Stevani Ibo. The achievements that the female rower has previously achieved were winning a gold medal at the 20th National Sports Week by defending the name of Papua Province. On this occasion, Stevani Ibo again won a gold medal at the National Sports Week by defending the name of the new province, namely Papua Pegunungan Province.
Stevani Ibo’s struggle to become a regular champion and win a gold medal was not easy. She underwent training after training at the lake in Sentani, Jayapura Regency, where she came from. She has also participated in various competitions both at national and international levels. In 2018, Stevani Ibo was part of the Republic of Indonesia contingent that competed in the Asian Games and won a silver medal. After winning the medal, Stevani Ibo maintained her physical condition and continued to train to be able to compete in the next competitions. One of the main competitions that Stevani Ibo aims for is the National Sports Week.
Stevani Ibo’s training process is inseparable from the support of the government, both local and central governments. Her status as a professional athlete means she must continue to fight to maintain her best performance and achieve achievements in various competitions. Stevani Ibo has been listed as an athlete fostered by the National Training since 2015 and until now still routinely joins the training agenda. The Papua Provincial Government has known about Stevani Ibo’s great talent since 2013 and has started providing the best training facilities to date.
Stevani Ibo’s hope for the future is to be able to compete in the Olympics if the rowing sport is included. In addition, she hopes that the achievements and medals she has obtained so far can be a motivation for people from her hometown, namely the Papua Pegunungan Province, to be able to follow in her footsteps to become professional athletes and bring honor to the province and even the name of Indonesia. The hope for the government is that the training program with its various facilities will continue to exist and even be improved so that athletes are prosperous and can focus on training to prepare for the competitions they will face. In addition, the hope is of course that Stevani Ibo has the next generation as female athletes who compete in rowing.
