Indonesia formed a National Olympic Committee in 1947, but recognition was rejected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in June 1947, at the IOC Session in Stockholm, and was not granted before 1952. In the same year, Indonesia competed at the Olympic Games for the first time, and also participated in 1956 and 1960. Indonesia missed the 1964 Olympic Games when it withdrew, after several of its athletes were banned for their participation at the 1963 Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO). The country also boycotted the 1980 Olympics but has never missed an edition of the Olympic Games since 1984. Indonesia has never competed at the Olympic Winter Games.

Indonesia’s national sport is badminton, at which it is one of the dominant countries in the world and in the Olympics. Through 2022, Indonesia has won 37 Olympics medals (eight golds), 21 of them in badminton, 15 in weightlifting, and one in archery. All of the nation’s gold medals have also come in the sport of badminton.

Only two Indonesian athletes have won three or more Olympics medals, both in weightlifting:Raema Lisa Rumbewas, in the flyweight (2000) and featherweight classes (2004 and 2008); andEko Irawan, with four medals from 2008 (bantamweight), through 2012, 2016 and 2020 (featherweight). To no surprise, the only athletes from Indonesia with a gold and one other medal come from the national sport:Lilyana Natsir won a silver in 2008 and a gold in 2016, competing in the mixed doubles in both occasions; andSusi Susanti won gold in 1992 and bronze in 1996, always competing in the women singles event.