Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc: The dazzling 100kg wrestler

Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc is a promising jiujitsu athlete from Vietnam, currently weighing 100kg - Photo: HOANG TUNG

During the 2025 Lunar New Year celebrations, village festivals in Northern Vietnam were vibrant with numerous wrestling matches. Among them, sports fans paid particular attention to the 100kg female wrestler Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, as she competed fairly and even won against male wrestlers.

Thanh Truc is currently a promising young talent on the Vietnamese jiujitsu team. She has gone through a journey of perseverance to pursue a professional sports career.

A breath of fresh air for Vietnamese jiujitsu.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc (born in 2005) is from Thanh Hoa . She is 1.7m tall and weighs 100kg. Thanh Truc's passion for sports began at school, when wrestling coaches came to scout for talent.

Regarding the reason for being selected for the wrestling team, Thanh Truc happily shared: "The coaches saw that I was stronger than the other members and also faster, so they chose me. Afterwards, I went home to ask my family for their opinion, and everyone supported me and advised me that since I had chosen, I must pursue it resolutely."

Starting in 2019, Thanh Truc pursued professional sports training, initially in wrestling, and later switched to jiujitsu (a Brazilian martial art quite similar to wrestling).

After five years of training, Thanh Truc began to make her mark by achieving impressive results at the continental level in her first international competition. She won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Asian Junior Championships and one gold and one silver medal at the Asian Championships in May 2024.

Thanh Truc is a strong-willed and charming girl in real life - Photo: FBNV

Thanh Truc once weighed up to 120kg.

Historically, Vietnamese martial arts teams have rarely produced talented athletes in the higher weight classes. Therefore, the emergence and early demonstration of talent by Thanh Truc in the over 70kg weight class is bringing new hope to Vietnamese jiujitsu.

Before being called up to the national jiujitsu team, Thanh Truc weighed as much as 120kg. The coaching staff devised a strict weight loss program for her. Thanks to her perseverance and determination, she reduced her weight to 100kg.

Commenting on his student, Coach Bui Dinh Tien of the Vietnamese jiujitsu team said: "Thanh Truc's strengths are her progressive spirit, always maintaining positive energy, and determination to achieve her goals."

Before calling Truc up to the national team, we also talked about the difficulties and harsh realities of pursuing professional sports. Because women all want to look good, but athletes face more disadvantages.

Unexpectedly, Truc seemed quite interested after hearing this and wanted to challenge herself. Truc is a girl with a strong personality, willing to make sacrifices for sports. For example, with weight loss, after receiving advice from the coaching staff, Truc threw herself into training, working out three sessions a day and even doing extra training after hours to reach the required weight."

Thanh Truc (right in the photo) on the Jiujitsu training mat - Photo: HOANG TUNG

Confident in a healthy body.

For professional athletes, especially in martial arts, losing or gaining weight is a challenging process. This is because, depending on professional requirements, a 70kg athlete may have to lose weight to compete in the under 60kg weight class, or they may have to gain tens of kilograms to compete in a heavier weight class for the sake of achieving better results.

The weight loss and weight gain process for athletes is therefore extremely arduous, from adhering to strict diets to performing extremely strenuous exercises. For example, Thanh Truc, in order to compete in the over 70kg category and maintain a weight of 100kg, had to sacrifice her beauty and the physique that girls usually desire.

Thanh Truc shared: "As a girl, everyone wants to look beautiful and buy clothes they love. However, I'm not at all insecure; on the contrary, I'm very confident in my 100kg physique. For me, beauty lies in being healthy and suitable for the work I pursue. Instead of paying attention to comments about my weight, I focus on training, striving to improve myself every day and aiming for higher achievements for Vietnamese sports."

Having lost her father at a young age and recently passed away due to cancer, Thanh Truc was raised by her grandmother while her two older brothers had to leave home to earn a living. These difficult circumstances forged her willpower and spirit. Winning the Asian championship was the starting point for this female martial artist who dared to sacrifice her feminine beauty to pursue a sporting career and bring glory to her country.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguyen-thi-thanh-truc-do-vat-100kg-sang-lap-lanh-20250310112717894.htm