'It's great to play for my homeland Vietnam'

OVERSEAS VIETNAMESE ATHLETES, A HUGE RESOURCE

If football has Nguyen Filip, Dang Van Lam, Cao Pendant Quang Vinh, Mac Hong Quan, Viktor Le... then in other sports , overseas Vietnamese athletes are also creating a rich picture. On May 7, 2023, twin sisters Truong Thao My (Kayleigh Truong) and Truong Thao Vy (Katylynne Truong) made history when they and the Vietnamese 3x3 basketball team won the first gold medal at the SEA Games. This is also a special milestone when for the first time, a pair of overseas Vietnamese sisters brought home a gold medal for Vietnamese sports at a regional sports event. Born in 2001, growing up in Houston, Texas (USA), My and Vy inherited their father's love of basketball, Mr. Truong Man, and were encouraged to practice and pursue this sport. In their final year of high school, Thao My and Thao Vy won the district championship, then continued to play basketball at Gonzaga University (USA), one of the strongest schools in the NCAA (American Collegiate Athletic Association). The two sisters first competed for the Vietnamese team at the ABL ICC 2022 and won the championship, before winning their first silver medal at the 31st SEA Games on home soil.

Twin sisters Thao My (11) - Thao Vy (14), overseas Vietnamese athletes, helped Vietnam win its first gold medal in basketball at the 32nd SEA Games.

Photo: Ha Phuong

After bringing home the historic gold medal for Vietnamese basketball at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023, Thao Vy was moved: "I am a Vietnamese girl, growing up in a Vietnamese family. I just want to play for Vietnam and want to play with Vietnamese girls. In the US, I don't have many opportunities to play with Asian girls. So it's really great to play for my country." Previously, in an interview with basketball magazine The Next Hoops (USA), Thao Vy shared that being able to return to Vietnam and immerse herself in Vietnamese culture, especially bringing a medal home, is a great honor.

The story of twin basketball players named Truong Twins by international media is a typical story of the wave of overseas Vietnamese athletes returning home and making increasingly great contributions to the pinnacle of Vietnamese sports. We can mention Savanna Ly Nguyen (born in 2000 in Canada) - Chanelle Van Nguyen (1994, USA) in the women's team event with a silver medal at the 31st SEA Games and a bronze medal at the 32nd SEA Games in tennis; swimmer Jeremie Luong (2000, France) won 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals, 3 bronze medals at the 31st SEA Games and 3 bronze medals at the 32nd SEA Games; Dinh Thanh Tam helped Vietnamese basketball win 2 bronze medals at the 30th SEA Games, a silver medal at the 31st SEA Games... The increasing presence of overseas Vietnamese athletes in the recent SEA Games shows the appeal of Vietnamese sports, while opening up the potential for great contributions from the overseas Vietnamese community who are turning more towards their homeland.

NEED TO STRENGTHEN TALENT ATTRACT STRATEGY

Looking back at the flow of Vietnamese sports over the past few years, it can be seen that the socialization trend is making important contributions in connecting, attracting and calling on overseas Vietnamese athletes to return to contribute to the Fatherland. For example, in basketball, all 5 members of the Vietnamese men's basketball team, Dinh Thanh Tam, Dinh Thanh Sang, Tran Dang Khoa, Justin Young, Chris Dierker, are all naturalized overseas Vietnamese. They have shown their talents in the Vietnam Professional Basketball League (VBA), and have tested their skills in the Saigon Heat team competing in the Southeast Asian professional basketball tournament. Since then, these athletes have been supported and facilitated to obtain Vietnamese citizenship to compete in the 30th SEA Games in the Philippines in 2019, bringing home 2 historic bronze medals. At the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam, most of the 16 players of the Vietnamese basketball team were overseas Vietnamese athletes returning from the US and Sweden. The story of sisters Truong Thao My and Truong Thao Vy helping Vietnamese basketball defeat the Philippines - who previously had no rivals in the region - to bring home a historic gold medal at the 32nd SEA Games shows that the potential and desire of Vietnamese athletes abroad is huge.

Mr. Hoang Quoc Vinh, Head of High Performance Sports Department - Vietnam Sports Administration, assessed: "Football players in particular and overseas Vietnamese athletes in general are playing an increasingly important role in the development of Vietnamese sports. Many overseas Vietnamese athletes are trained in advanced sports systems abroad (USA, France, Germany, Australia...), have outstanding technical skills, physical strength and tactical thinking. When competing for Vietnam, they help improve the professional quality of national teams, such as in the following sports: football, athletics, swimming, martial arts, gymnastics... They are examples of professional discipline, serious training attitude and spirit of overcoming difficulties, helping to create a positive competitive environment for domestic athletes, contributing to changing the mindset of training and sports management in a modern direction.

To attract more overseas Vietnamese athletes, the Vietnamese sports industry needs to build a transparent and open legal mechanism, simplify procedures, issue clear policies on rights, responsibilities and regimes when competing for Vietnam, establish a network to search for overseas Vietnamese athletes in countries with large Vietnamese communities such as the US, France, Germany, Canada; send representatives to contact directly with athletes, families, or sports academies. Have a suitable financial mechanism, ensure accommodation, health care, insurance,education ... so that athletes can confidently contribute. Organize cultural and language support programs to help overseas Vietnamese athletes easily integrate into the domestic environment. Honor and reward them promptly so that they feel respected by their homeland."

Witnessing the success of swimmer Jeremy Luong, who returned to Vietnam with his family from France in 2010, General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Federation Hoang Quoc Binh shared: "Overseas Vietnamese athletes are a very good resource for Vietnamese sports, demonstrated through their achievements in basketball, football, tennis, swimming, etc. at the SEA Games. That is the trend, but to call them back to Vietnam more successfully, we really need better support in terms of procedures."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/that-tuyet-voi-khi-duoc-thi-dau-cho-que-huong-viet-nam-185250524002211344.htm