Background and career
Liliyana Natsir (born 9 September 1985) is an Indonesian badminton player who specialized in doubles. Natsir has won a gold and a silver at the Olympic Games, and four gold medals at the BWF World Championships. She was inducted in the BWF Hall of Fame in 2022.
Natsir was ranked world number 1 in the mixed doubles with two different partners. Together with Nova Widianto, she won the gold medal at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships; 2006 World Cup; 2006 Asian Championships; and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Natsir was then paired with Tontowi Ahmad and the duo clinched the BWF World Championships title in 2013 and 2017; won the 2015 Asian Championships; and also the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Natsir and Ahmad topped the mixed doubles world ranking on 3 May 2018.
Natsir was the second Indonesian woman Olympic gold medalist, after Susi Susanti in 1992, and was later succeeded by Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in 2021. Among her achievements is her three back-to-back titles from the 2012–2014 All England Open; and in 2016, she and Ahmad became the first Indonesian mixed doubles pair to win a gold medal at the Olympics. She holds the highest number of BWF World Championship titles for mixed doubles.
