Thet Htar Thuzar ( my, သက်ထားသူဇာ; born 15 March 1999) is a Burmese

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

player. She participated at the

2013 SEA Games The 2013 Southeast Asian Games (, ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and commonly known as Naypyitaw 2013, was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event took place in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar from 11 to 22 December ...

in her home country Myanmar. She won her first International title at the Egypt International 2018. As of 2019 she had reached eight finals, most of them in the African Badminton Circuit, winning six events (in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

, Ivory Coast and again in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Early life and training

Born in 1999 in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, a career in badminton was always in the cards for Thet Htar; she was born to parents who are both badminton players. She first picked up a badminton racket when she was seven years old. Thet Htar was raised briefly in Thailand since her father was serving as a coach there. She juggled sports and studies in Thailand and won third prize in her first competition at the age of seven. Then she returned to Myanmar with her family in 2010 and trained more enthusiastically while handling her academic studies. Shortly after her return to her motherland, she was selected to represent the Yangon Region in the Regions and States Tournament and won the best player award. Then, she started competing in open tournaments and was enlisted in the National team. She was only 11 when she participated in the

2011 SEA Games The 2011 Southeast Asian Games, ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia Tenggara 2011) officially known as the 26th Southeast Asian Games, or the 26th SEA Games, and commonly known as Jakarta-Palembang 2011, was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held from ...

. Although she did not emerge victorious at her international debut, Thet Htar had now fallen in love with the taste of competition. She experiences every tournament as a challenge. Besides her skills and success in badminton, her generous smile and classic Myanmar brunette looks have made Thet Htar a Myanmar sweetheart, gaining a huge fan base both online and offline. Prior to the Tokyo Olympics she took part in the Asia Olympic Project, which was a year-end regional training programme being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She also participated for Myanmar at the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, and at the 2023 Games. At the

2015 SEA Games The 2015 Southeast Asian Games ( ms, Sukan Asia Tenggara 2015; ; ta, 2015 தென்கிழக்கு ஆசிய விளையாட்டுப் போட்டிகள்), officially known as the 28th Southeast Asian Games, or ...

she was absent, because the event conflicted with her schooling. She traveled as far as Africa and Europe to chase her Olympic dream.

Career

Thet Htar Thuzar reached three semi-finals in 2019. At the India International Challenge losing a close contested match against Thai player

Benyapa Aimsaard Benyapa Aimsaard ( th, เบญญาภา เอี่ยมสอาด; born 29 August 2002) is a Thai badminton player. Career Aimsaard educated at the Demonstration School of Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University. She entered the inter ...

20–22, 17–21, and the semi-finals at the

Maldives International The Maldives International is an open international badminton tournament in Maldives organized by the Badminton Association of Maldives and sanctioned by the Badminton Asia Confederation and Badminton World Federation. This tournament has been an ...

, where she lost after one hour and two minutes against Vũ Thị Trang of Vietnam 14–21, 21–15, 16–21. And also losing the semi-final at her home event, the

Myanmar International Myanmar International Television ( my, မြန်မာအင်တာနေရှင်နယ်ရုပ်သံလိုင်း, abbreviated MITV) is a Burmese state-owned national and international English-language television channel ba ...

to Indonesian Maharani Sekar Batari 15–21, 17–21. She participated at the 2019 Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, China. She lost the quarter-finals of the 2019 Bulgarian Open to eventual winner

Neslihan Yiğit Neslihan Yiğit (born February 26, 1994) is a Turkish badminton player. The tall athlete plays right-handed and is coached by Çağatay Taşdemir at Egospor club of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. She won the women's singles title at the 2013 I ...

of Turkey in a 57 minutes marathon match 12–21, 21–19, 18–21.

Olympian

Thet Htar Thuzar qualified and participated at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

in July 2021. She lost both her Group M women's singles matches against 14th seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia (11–21, 8–21) and

Lianne Tan Lianne Tan (born 20 November 1990) is a Belgian badminton player. She competed for Belgium at the 2012 London, 2016 Rio, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She was selected to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics, together with her brother Yuhan. ...

of Belgium (6–21, 8–21).

World Championship participation

After the Olympics she played her last match during the round of 64 of the 2021 BWF World Championships losing 15–21, 16–21 to Chinese Taipei player Pai Yu-po.

Achievements

BWF International Challenge/Series (8 titles, 3 runners-up)

''Women's singles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament : BWF International Series tournament : BWF Future Series tournament

References

External links

* * {{BWF, BF953C55-36EE-4C20-B607-054BCF5E8A36 Living people 1999 births Sportspeople from Yangon Burmese female badminton players Badminton players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players for Myanmar Competitors at the 2011 SEA Games Competitors at the 2013 SEA Games Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games Competitors at the 2023 SEA Games SEA Games competitors for Myanmar SEA Games silver medalists for Myanmar SEA Games medalists in badminton