The girl brings sunshine with every stroke of the oar.

39 Gold medals, 19 Silver medals, 11 Bronze medals, and a place on the national rowing team at the age of 17 – these are the achievements of Vu Thi Ngoc Uyen, an 11th-grade student from Tan Khanh commune who, along with her teammates, won a Silver medal and two Bronze medals at the Asian Beach Games in China...

A chance encounter with sports.

Late in the afternoon at Noi Bai International Airport, a stream of people after international flights made their way through the baggage claim area, their suitcases tilted on the gleaming tiled floor, their calls mingling with the monotonous announcements. Amidst the crowd, a girl in a red dress stood out with her radiant, sun-like smile, her long hair neatly tied back, one hand clutching a brand-new teddy bear, the other pulling a heavy suitcase.

Athlete Vu Thi Ngoc Uyen.

At the rest stop, the girl giggled happily: "My suitcase is full of gifts and food, it's so heavy!" Then, as if to prove it, she innocently put the suitcase down and opened the lid. Inside, besides a few items bought abroad, most of it was snacks neatly packed as gifts for her teammates. She quickly took out a large packet of cookies and a colorful bag of candy to offer to everyone. The teddy bear, a small gift from the coach after the successful tournament, she hugged carefully as if it were something that soothed her heart after days of exertion.

That was the first time we met Vu Thi Ngoc Uyen, a girl from Tan Khanh commune who had just returned with her teammates after winning a Silver Medal and two Bronze Medals in traditional boat racing at the Asian Beach Games in China. Looking at her lively, cheerful demeanor, it's hard to imagine that this girl, currently in 11th grade, had days of training to the point where her legs were unsteady, and she was exhausted as if she had just pushed herself beyond her limits.

Ngoc Uyen has a bright face, a tanned complexion from years spent outdoors, and hands calloused from rowing, weightlifting, and technical training. She smiles often, radiating a bright and heartwarming smile that brightens the hearts of those who meet her. But behind that innocent appearance lies a childhood marked by many hardships.

Her family circumstances were unusual; her father passed away when she was very young, so she mainly lived with her grandmother. The story is told lightly, as if the losses had long since passed and there was no need to talk about them anymore. Perhaps that's why the little girl learned to grow up earlier than her peers, to take care of herself, and to get used to many unpleasant things.

In seventh grade, Uyên went along when her friends invited her to try out for sports talent. She recalled: "At that time, I didn't even know what sport it was. I went out of curiosity, and because I was with a friend. Only when I started training did I realize I was entering a world completely different from the days I spent playing around the neighborhood after school."

The first week was so exciting and new. I trained with my friends with great enthusiasm, exploring new things. But by the second week, when muscle aches set in, my limbs felt numb, my body tensed from training, and homesickness and fatigue began to show.

Ngoc Uyen (far right) and her teammates receiving their medals.

In 2022, I was a member of the rowing team at Thai Nguyen Sports Training School. When I first started, I only lifted ten or fifteen kilograms, but now I've gradually increased it to sixty or seventy kilograms. During training sessions for competitions, I push myself to the limit with four shifts, leaving my body almost numb. A rowing session can last dozens of kilometers, and the back-and-forth rowing has left calluses on my slender hands.

After hearing Ngoc Uyen's story, we were all amazed, and someone asked: "With all that training and exhaustion, surely not many people can keep up?"

Uyen smiled and said, "Yes, of course, the friend who invited me to the recruitment that year has also left. But she still encourages me all the time, telling me to keep trying, and I don't know how many times I've told myself to try one more time."

Traditional boat racing is not a sport for improvisational moments. People often see the moment the team speeds towards the finish line, hear the cheers, and see the medals gleam under the lights, but they rarely think about the training days when a single misstep or a wrong movement could cause the entire boat to lose its rhythm.

In the women's national team, positions are always fiercely contested. A team competing in a tournament only has twelve official players and two reserves, while the training population is much larger. A slight dip in performance or poor results can immediately give someone else a chance.

Uyen said there were times when she trained to the point of "exhaustion," feeling utterly drained, her legs unsteady, and as if all her energy had been drained. After intense training sessions, her spirits would plummet, to the point where she just wanted to lie still, not talk, and not think about anything else.

The hardest times are usually the weekends. When the training regimen from the beginning of the week drags on, the body is exhausted, and homesickness becomes more apparent. Others see the glamour of athletes, but for sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls, there are days when all they want is to go home, have a meal, sleep soundly, or simply hear someone ask if they're tired.

Uyen's mother initially didn't want her daughter to pursue sports because she feared she would suffer. The heartache of a mother watching her young daughter tanned and sunburnt from dawn till dusk, training every day, is heartbreaking.

Ngoc Uyen forced a smile, saying that once, after her mother nagged her a lot, she even said, "Mom, just let me pursue my passion."

That being said, after each of Uyen's successes, her mother has been a source of encouragement and motivation for her to strive. Once, after nearly two years of training, Uyen asked to quit. Not because she hated the sport, nor because she was too tired, but because many people around her were quitting, her spirits were low, and she felt uncertain. At that time, her coach talked to her for a very long time, lasting four or five hours.

Ngoc Uyen mused: "At that moment, I thought, 'Well, let's try a little harder and see what happens.'"

Watching the innocent girl smiling and talking, I secretly thought, if she had chosen differently that day, there wouldn't be the girl in the red dress hugging a teddy bear standing at Noi Bai Airport, beaming next to a suitcase full of gifts for her teammates after an international tournament.

Reach for your dreams

In her early years on the provincial team, Uyen simply thought that she just needed to train hard, and see where things would lead. But high-performance sports are not for those who can succeed simply by being diligent. There, every position is held by daily effort, every training session, every time overcoming the feeling of wanting to give up and still getting up on time the next morning.

In 2025, Uyen was called up to the national youth team. The good news came on an ordinary day, nothing particularly special except for a lingering feeling of elation that lasted for several days. The young girl from Tan Khanh felt she had only taken one step further on a long journey, because ahead of her were still stronger, more experienced older girls, and the competition for a playing position never ceased to be fierce.

In early 2026, Uyen was officially named to the national team. She recounted this with her familiar laugh, but her eyes lit up as she said she was both happy, surprised, and incredibly worried. The women's national team only selects about thirty athletes for training, but when it comes time to compete, far fewer people actually participate. One person out of sync can slow the whole team down. One person running out of energy can affect the overall performance. Therefore, athletes must have good physical fitness, technique, and the ability to withstand pressure, knowing how to fit into the team's rhythm.

With such intense training, there were days when Uyen's steps were no longer steady after a workout. Running, technique training, swimming, weightlifting, and then returning to online classes in the evening. Because of this, she almost had no time to take care of herself.

Life on the national team made the seventeen-year-old girls mature faster. They cooked their own meals, divided up grocery shopping, and followed the menu to ensure their fitness. Some went to the market, some cooked, and others reminded each other to eat enough because they had intense training the next day. These seemingly small activities, for Uyen, became lessons about living together, giving way to each other, and being considerate of one another amidst an already intense pace of life.

A rare moment of reflection flickered across Ngoc Uyen's face as she mused, "I feel I've matured a lot. In that environment, if you're too weak-willed, it's very difficult to move forward. Let people say whatever they want, I have to try my best. Just do my job well."

The words of the girl, who was only in 11th grade, sounded simple, but they carried a resilience that only those who had experienced hardship early in life could understand.

One of the things that makes Uyen beam the most is when she talks about her trips abroad. Her first training session was in Thailand, then she competed in Hong Kong (China), and later in international tournaments in China. Everything was so much broader than she had imagined when she went along with a friend "to see" it in 7th grade.

What Uyên talked about so enthusiastically wasn't the beautiful hotel or the achievements, but the small badges. The athletes met and exchanged national badges as a way of getting acquainted. Some opened their phones, used a translation app to say that they liked Vietnam, liked the Vietnamese people, and then smiled brightly when they received the small badge in their hands.

My friend playfully touched the badges plastered all over her ID card lanyard: "I felt so happy and proud at that moment. Vietnamese people are always friendly and kind. So I have to try even harder to be worthy of our national flag."

Recalling the recent Asian Games, where the women's team won a Silver and two Bronze medals, Uyen honestly said: "Our team was strong, but our opponents were stronger." There wasn't much regret in her voice; 17-year-old Ngoc Uyen was calm and understood that in sports, there's no place for complacency. Today she stands on the podium receiving a medal, but tomorrow she still has to start training from scratch.

Ms. Duong Thi Mai, Head Coach of the Thai Nguyen Rowing Team, shared: "Uyen is a talented athlete with great potential, always giving her all in competition. There was a time when she asked to quit, but with her passion and determination, she maintained her spirit. Uyen is someone who knows how to pick herself up, sets goals, and strives to achieve them. Outside of competition, she is always optimistic and cheerful, spreading positive energy to everyone."

Ngoc Uyen (far left) with her coach and teammates.

During our lengthy conversation that late afternoon, when I asked about her greatest wish, Uyen whispered: "I want to have a secure position on the national team. I will try my best to achieve that. Now that I'm young, I should just pursue my passion. Sometimes I get tired, but I also feel happy because I'm doing what I love."

Surely, for a girl who has repeatedly overcome fatigue, discouragement, and the breathless feeling of youth amidst fierce competition, this dream was achieved at the cost of many mornings waking up while it was still dark.

As we parted ways, Uyen clutched the teddy bear the coach had given her to her chest, turned back, smiled, and waved quickly before following everyone out the door. In that moment, I suddenly thought of the little girl in seventh grade who used to follow her friends just for fun. Indeed, some dreams initially have no clear form, just a step forward after weariness, only to realize later that one has come much further than they ever imagined.

And perhaps, for young people like Uyen, the most precious thing is not necessarily the medals shining under the lights, but the fact that amidst many times they want to stop, they still hold onto a reason to keep going, like the rhythm of rowing on the water, steady and disciplined, and just a slight slowdown will cause the whole boat to rock.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-nghe-thai-nguyen/but-ky-phong-su/202605/co-gai-mang-nang-ve-tu-nhung-nhip-cheo-feb2d95/