National Sports Festival: As scheduled... racing against time

Wait until the water reaches your feet to jump

In 2022, until early July, the Project to organize the 9th National Sports Congress in 2022 had not yet been approved by the competent authority. At that time, as expected, there was less than half a year left until the opening day of the 9th National Sports Congress. This caused the units participating in the Congress to "stand and watch" even though before that, through many information channels, they had a basic grasp of the number of events and competition content of the Congress. That year, it was not until the end of August that the Project to organize the 9th National Sports Congress in 2022 and the Framework Regulations of the 9th National Sports Congress in 2022 were issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The CAND athletes marched in the opening ceremony of the 9th National Sports Festival in 2022.

Such delays naturally affect the professional quality of the Congress, and do not ensure the necessary time for units to fully prepare.

Immediately after the 9th National Sports Congress in 2022, many opinions have suggested that the authorities playing a key role in developing and promulgating the Project for organizing and promulgating the Framework Charter for the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026 need to complete this task soon in 2023. In order to do so, the units will have enough time to prepare as well as have specific investment orientations for high-performance sports. And the early promulgation of the Project and Framework Charter above will also demonstrate the professional working style and vision of the relevant units.

However, up to now, when there is more than 1 year left until the opening ceremony of the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026, the Project for organizing the Congress is still in the process of being built and of course, without the Project, there cannot be a Framework Charter. In fact, nearly 1 year ago, the construction of the Project for organizing the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026 was initiated and the specialized department at the Vietnam Sports Administration (formerly known as the Sports Administration) assigned specific responsibilities has also been completed. But for many reasons, up to now, the Project for organizing the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026 is still... racing against time.

The issue of concern at the moment is the number of sports to compete at the 10th National Sports Festival in 2026. At the end of March 2025, at the Workshop on providing comments on the development of the Program for key sports to participate in the Olympics and ASIAD in the period 2026-2046, former Director General of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Vuong Bich Thang proposed that managers need to have a different approach to the number of sports to compete at the 10th National Sports Festival in 2026 as well as future National Sports Festivals. Mr. Vuong Bich Thang emphasized that one of the reasons why for many years, localities have dispersed resources and could not fully focus on the sports in the Olympic and ASIAD competition programs according to the direction of the Sports industry is to follow the competition program of the National Sports Festival. Former General Director of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Vuong Bich Thang also said that, right at the 2026 National Sports Festival, it is necessary to learn from previous Games to adjust the number of competitions towards focusing on Olympic and ASIAD sports. From this clear direction, localities have a direction for implementation, thereby increasing resources to join hands with the Central level to implement the Program to develop key sports to participate in the Olympics and ASIAD in the period of 2026-2046 when this program is approved.

It is not by chance that Mr. Vuong Bich Thang brought up this fact. It is easy to see that the competition program of the National Sports Congress in the past has been quite inconsistent with the direction from the Central Government, especially starting from 2018. That year, the name of the Congress was changed from the National Sports Congress to the National Sports Congress. The omission of the word "gymnastics" compared to the previous name also clearly affirmed the high-performance sports nature of the Congress.

Don't worry about fast or slow

In fact, the story of fast and slow in organizing the National Sports Festival is also partly related to the number of events in the competition program. The story now lies in the orientation of sports managers.

However, the number of events at the National Sports Festival is increasing, including many events that are not part of the Olympic, ASIAD, or even SEA Games competition programs or that do not appear regularly at the SEA Games... Not to mention the number of medals at the National Sports Festival from events other than the Olympics, ASIAD, or that appear at the SEA Games as "unexpected events", or that have never appeared at the SEA Games, there are also quite a few. That makes many localities focus their investment budget on these events to focus on achievements at the Games instead of following the general direction of the Sports industry, which is the Olympic and ASIAD events.

For example, at the 8th National Sports Festival in 2018, 36 sports and 743 competitions were held. By the 9th National Sports Festival in 2022, a "record" was set when 941 events were held in 43 competitions, including traditional wrestling, lion and dragon dancing, traditional martial arts, stick pushing, tug of war...

The experience of Chinese sports can be used as a reference for Vietnamese sports managers. At the Chinese National Games, in addition to high-performance sports, usually 35 or less in the Olympic competition program, the ASIAD also has a section on grassroots sports. This is also a suggestion for Vietnamese sports managers to be able to solve the problem of grassroots sports mixed with high-performance sports in the recent National Sports Festival program.

Recently, in a discussion with the leaders of Hanoi Sports, the leading unit in the country in high-performance sports, the unit's representative also said that they are still waiting for the Framework Charter of the 2026 National Sports Festival. While waiting, the Center's departments must still be proactive, trying to grasp information so as not to be passive as much as possible.

Besides Hanoi, some other units also hope that the 2026 National Sports Festival will only include sports in the Olympic and ASIAD competition programs, and sports that often appear at the SEA Games. In addition, the number of competition events for the above sports will also closely follow the above playgrounds and have a certain openness to encourage and promote localities to invest in high-performance sports. As for sports that are not in the Olympic, ASIAD, SEA Games competition programs or do not appear regularly at the SEA Games, they should be transferred to another national playground.

The most important thing is the clear separation in building the competition program of the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026 to ensure the correct criteria for high-performance sports set for this playground.

Only then will the progress of building and completing the Project to organize the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026 as well as the Framework Charter of the Congress be completed soon. From there, units will grasp and implement instead of waiting like now and have a direction to invest in high-performance sports.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/van-hoa/dai-hoi-the-thao-toan-quoc-den-hen-lai-chay-dua-voi-thoi-gian-i767589/