However, along with the advantages come a series of challenges, making the problem of foreign experts for key sports still unsolved.
The gaps that cannot be filled
At the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), Asian Games or Olympics, Vietnam's sporting achievements still depend on key sports such as: Shooting, archery, weightlifting, athletics... These are all sports with the potential to win medals, especially if they are properly invested in and led by a team of good experts. However, paradoxically, despite being classified as key sports, many sports are lacking or unable to retain foreign experts.
For example, in athletics, since parting ways with Bulgarian expert Simeonov (in 2022), who made great contributions to raising the level of middle and long-distance runners, helping Vietnam dominate these events at the SEA Games, the team has had almost no foreign experts staying with them for a long time.
Similarly, in weightlifting, after 12 years of parting ways with the Bulgarian coach - expert Deikov, the key athletes of the team such as Thach Kim Tuan, Vuong Thi Huyen or Trinh Van Vinh still do not have a foreign coach to replace them. Despite achieving many remarkable achievements, with the top competitions such as ASIAD or Olympics, reaching the gold medal is still a big goal for the above names.
In shooting, the miracle of shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh at the 2016 Rio Olympics was expected to be the fulcrum to bring this sport into a new development cycle. However, after parting ways with Korean expert Park Chung-gun, the team fell into a state of exhaustion, especially in technical training and competition psychology. Without foreign experts, domestic coaches had to "struggle" to take on all stages, from technical tactics to psychological analysis - which is the strength of experts from sports powerhouses such as: Korea, Japan, the US or China.
According to Nguyen Manh Hung, General Secretary of the Vietnam Athletics Federation, one of the reasons why key sports lack foreign experts is because the team's budget is limited, while hiring foreign experts, especially from the US, Japan, South Korea, China or Russia... requires high salaries, from 3,000 to 7,000 USD/month, not to mention the cost of accommodation, travel, insurance and accompanying working conditions. With the current sports budget, maintaining a team of foreign experts for a long time is a big challenge.
Need to invest in the right focus, long term
At the workshop on providing ideas for the development of the Program for key sports to prepare for the Olympics and ASIAD in the period of 2026-2046, recently organized by the Vietnam Sports Administration (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), experts agreed on including the following sports: Shooting, archery, weightlifting and athletics in the key group to compete for medals, and at the same time proposed many solutions to improve the quality of the athlete team, including attracting and retaining foreign experts.
Head of the High Performance Sports Department (Vietnam Sports Administration) Hoang Quoc Vinh said that in order to have a breakthrough change in training methods, it is necessary to have foreign experts with a new, modern approach to help key athletes of the team stand firm in high-pressure playgrounds such as the Olympics and ASIAD. “The Vietnam Sports Administration is willing to pay a maximum salary of 8,000 USD/month for foreign experts of key athletes in national teams. This is considered a fairly high salary, which can attract good foreign experts from many other countries. The problem is that the relevant department must find the right person who meets the professional requirements,” Mr. Hoang Quoc Vinh affirmed.
Meanwhile, sports expert Nguyen Hong Minh pointed out: "Instead of just relying on the state budget, the socialization of financial resources to hire experts needs to be promoted more strongly, contributing to creating new vitality for training, education and fostering key sports athletes."
Regarding this issue, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Sports Department Le Thi Hoang Yen said that recruiting foreign experts is not only a short-term solution for the goal of winning medals, but also a long-term strategy to transfer training technology and modernize the country's sports. The important thing is to have a mechanism for experts to work effectively and pass on their experience to the domestic coaching team. Only then can we hope to create a breakthrough in the achievements of Vietnamese sports in arenas such as ASIAD or the Olympics in the near future.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/huong-toi-asiad-olympic-the-thao-trong-diem-van-khat-chuyen-gia-ngoai-701142.html
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