Young yoga champion

HNN - Born in 2000, Le Minh Vu is a rather special young face from Hue. Vu's path has been a slow but persistent journey, starting with traditional music and then branching out into yoga. In 2024 and 2025, Minh Vu was recognized as a national yoga champion, marking a long and arduous journey for this young man from the ancient capital.

Le Minh Vu (center) at the 4th National Youth Yoga Championship.

From the training room to the ring

Minh Vu's journey with yoga was quite accidental. In 2018, while still a 12th-grade student, during an elective physical education class, Vu stumbled upon yoga. Without pressure to achieve results or competition goals, yoga was simply a relaxing choice among many other sports . But it was the tranquility, discipline, and ability to listen to one's body that made Vu even more attached to it.

From those initial introductory, experiential sessions, Vu began practicing more regularly. For Vu, yoga is not just about stretching or maintaining balance, but a journey of self-improvement, both physically and mentally. Over the years, Vu gradually realized that with enough passion, yoga can become a long-term career path.

In recent years, as competitive yoga has begun to be included, Minh Vu has found himself at a new crossroads: taking his yoga practice out of the studio and onto the competition stage.

Vũ's first competition was in 2024 in Da Nang, marking his first foray into professional sports. Following that were trips to Tam Ky, Rach Gia, and other locations… These successive tournaments provided both opportunities to hone his skills and rare chances for him to travel and broaden his horizons . For a young person who has been dedicated to yoga for many years, each trip brought a mix of excitement and nervousness, like a special vacation. From those first "steps onto the field," Minh Vũ won numerous medals and became a national yoga champion for two consecutive years, 2024 and 2025.

In 2025, at the first Hue City Open Yoga Tournament, Minh Vu did not compete but participated as a referee. From being an athlete to taking on the role of a judge, Vu gained a different perspective on yoga sport: more serious, more standardized, and requiring participants to constantly improve themselves.

Choose yoga as your path to development.

The yoga community in Hue is very strong, with many practitioners and skilled instructors, but there is a significant gap: a lack of connection. Hue currently does not have an official yoga federation, leading to considerable difficulties for athletes who want to participate in major competitions.

In that context, to compete at the national level in 2024, Minh Vu accepted a rather unusual choice: to become a "mercenary" for the Ninh Thuan team (later merged into the Khanh Hoa team). From a complete stranger, Vu joined a new team with a mixture of caution and determination. What Vu will always remember is not the pressure of competition, but the sincere support from the team members, both in spirit and in material resources, in daily life and in professional training.

It was in that environment that Vu truly understood what professional sportsmanship meant. It wasn't just about hard work in training, but also about discipline, responsibility to the team, and how each individual is supported to reach their full potential. That experience became a crucial milestone, helping Vu mature more quickly on his competitive journey.

After 8 years of training, Minh Vu is now a yoga instructor at several centers. As a national champion, Vu not only imparts techniques but also shares the training spirit he has accumulated through various competitions. For this young man, teaching yoga is not just a means of livelihood, but also a way to spread a positive, disciplined, and persistent lifestyle.

Vu's dream is quite simple but not at all small: to continue to interact and compete in bigger tournaments, and gradually build his own yoga studio in Hue. It will be a place not only for practice, but also for connecting with the community, something that Hue yoga desperately needs.

At 25, Minh Vu is still on a journey to discover new limits for himself. Without fanfare or haste, Vu chooses to move forward step by step. From his elective gymnastics classes years ago, to the national competition arena, then his roles as a coach and referee... Each stage of his journey bears the mark of a serious choice driven by passion. And the journey of this young man continues, quietly but with unwavering strength.

Text and photos: Pham Phuoc Chau

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/kien-tuong-yoga-tre-tuoi-162867.html