Xuan Thien's will to overcome difficulties

Xuân Thiện - Ảnh 1. — Fans are waiting for Xuan Thien to complete the gold medal target in the pommel horse event at SEA Games 33 - Photo: NAM TRAN

Born in 2002 in Ho Chi Minh City, in a family with a tradition of sports , Dang Ngoc Xuan Thien soon showed his talent when he was selected by the Ho Chi Minh City Sports Training and Competition Center at the age of 6. After 17 years of training, Dang Ngoc Xuan Thien is considered one of the talented athletes of Vietnamese sports.

Willpower to overcome difficulties

Since childhood, thanks to a solid foundation of training, Xuan Thien was able to compete well in all 6 single events of gymnastics. In 2011, when he was just

At the age of 9, Xuan Thien had his first international tournament when he attended the Southeast Asian School Sports Festival. Here, Xuan Thien brought home 3 gold medals for the Vietnamese team in 3 different events.

However, at the age of development, Xuan Thien suddenly encountered the first shock of his life. During a training session in 2015, he suffered an injury and tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his left leg. And he had to rest for nearly a year to recover from the injury.

The brutal nature and elimination of sports, serious injuries can ruin the career of young athletes. But the encouragement of family, teachers, friends and passion, the desire to conquer the highest achievements helped Xuan Thien overcome himself.

However, this unfortunate incident caused Xuan Thien's career to take a different direction. This was due to the after-effects of the injury that limited his abilities and limited the movements and events he could practice.

Therefore, since 2018, Xuan Thien can only focus on single events, specifically the horse turntable (also known as the hand-cranked horse), under the guidance of coach Le Hoang Thanh.

But this incident of Xuan Thien was the turning point for the appearance of the best vault athlete in Vietnamese gymnastics today.

Dang Ngoc Xuan Thien is a very determined athlete who never gives up. Thien is one of the two best singles athletes that Vietnam Gymnastics has selected to compete for gold medals at the upcoming 33rd SEA Games.

Head coach of Vietnam gymnastics team Truong Minh Sang

Beat the world champion

In 2022, the 31st SEA Games will be held in Vietnam, Xuan Thien will participate in a regional sports event for the first time. Here, Xuan Thien will compete with Carlos Yulo - a former world and Olympic champion in the final round.

Although knowing that pommel horse is not Yulo's strong point, Xuan Thien was still nervous and under a lot of pressure. Thanks to the encouragement of the coaching staff, Xuan Thien finally completed the test well and surpassed Yulo to win the gold medal in his strong point.

The first SEA Games gold medal in his career has brought Xuan Thien's name closer to Vietnamese fans. After the 31st SEA Games at home, he continued to bring home 2 out of 4 gold medals for Vietnamese gymnastics at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia.

Notably, Xuan Thien is perhaps the rare high-performance athlete with severe myopia of up to 3 degrees who still won gold medals at the SEA Games. At the end of 2023, Xuan Thien underwent surgery to help him regain normal vision. Regaining his vision has greatly helped Xuan Thien in controlling space and sensation. And thereby helping him control his movements more firmly.

And thanks to this, he won a gold medal at the 2025 World Challenge Cup in Bulgaria and a bronze medal at the 2025 Asian Gymnastics Championships in Korea. At the age of 23, Dang Ngoc Xuan Thien has become a leading gymnast in Vietnam.

With the determination to overcome difficulties that he has shown, everyone is waiting for Xuan Thien to shine in future tournaments.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nghi-luc-vuot-kho-cua-xuan-thien-20251123084154167.htm