Vietnamese sports before the Olympic arena

In just a few days, on the evening of July 26, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics - the biggest international sporting event of the year - will be held in the capital of Paris, France. The Vietnamese sports delegation of 39 members, including 16 athletes from 11 sports, set off on July 17 and will enter the Games with the goal of "winning medals".

From the arduous journey in the Olympic sea

The unified Vietnamese sports delegation first participated in the Olympics in Moscow in 1980, an event in which the athletes did not have to go through the qualifying round (invited by the Organizing Committee). In the context of the domestic economy still being difficult, in the first time going out to the big sea, our athletes did not achieve any significant results. In Los Angeles (USA) 1984, the year that all socialist countries did not participate due to the context of the "cold war", the Vietnamese sports delegation also did not participate. Since the Olympics from 1988 to the present, Vietnamese sports have always participated in the biggest sporting event on the planet. However, because the level of the top Vietnamese athletes in the sports in the Olympic competition system is still far behind even the continental level, at the Olympics, the goal set is still the familiar phrase "rubbing and learning". It was not until Sydney (Australia) in 2000 that we had our first medal thanks to female martial artist Tran Hieu Ngan in Taekwondo. That was also the first year this martial art originating from Korea was included in the competition program of the Games. Because it was still quite new in the Olympic arena, but we had invested early about 10 years before that, so Vietnam was the only country in Southeast Asia to have a Taekwondo medal that year.

Director of the Department of Physical Training and Sports, Dang Ha Viet, is the Head of the Vietnamese sports delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympics (Photo: Quy Luong).

After coming up empty-handed in Athens (Greece) 2004, in Beijing 2008, the Vietnamese sports delegation won a medal, still a silver medal, thanks to weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan in weightlifting. It can be said that we have established another strength capable of competing in the top arena with the men's light weight category in weightlifting. But while weightlifting has progressed, Taekwondo has somewhat declined when no athlete won a ticket to Athens 2004, then continued to come up empty-handed in Beijing 2008 despite having 3 representatives (the best result was only reaching the quarterfinals). In London 2012, the Vietnamese sports delegation was almost empty-handed, except for the "late bronze medal" 9 years later by Tran Le Quoc Toan when an athlete in the group above was caught doping. The 8-year cycle repeated itself at Rio 2016 with a breakthrough achievement from the sublimation of shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh with a historic gold medal in the 10m air pistol event, followed by a silver medal in the 50m distance. Thus, it took exactly 9 Olympic Games and 36 years of waiting for shooting (a strong sport that brought home the first Asian Games bronze medal in 1982) to enjoy the sweet fruit of the Olympics for the country's sports. But at Tokyo 2020, the empty-handed obsession returned when the Vietnamese sports delegation with 18 elite athletes participating in 11 sports could not win any medals. Olympic hero Hoang Xuan Vinh only ranked 22nd. The number 1 hope in Taekwondo, Kim Tuyen, lost as expected to the person who later won the gold medal, Panipak (Thailand). Another hope is that Thach Kim Tuan (weightlifting, competing in the 56kg category where Hoang Anh Tuan and Tran Le Quoc Toan won silver and bronze medals) did not perform at his best, and did not even complete the clean and jerk competition... Only by participating and witnessing it directly can we understand how much pressure athletes from developing sports like Vietnam face at the Olympics. Therefore, after 10 times participating in the Olympics, Vietnamese sports have only won 4 medals (1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) in 3 sports: shooting, Taekwondo and weightlifting. Although the statistics are sad, it is also understandable when in a long journey, we have focused more on the SEA Games arena, and even in a closer arena, the Asiad (Asian Games), our achievements are still far behind those of countries with similar sports in the Southeast Asian region.

The uncertainty before the 2024 Paris Olympics

After the 19th Asiad, Vietnamese sports in general, and high-performance sports in particular, have been subject to much criticism for consecutively ranking first in the 31st and 32nd SEA Games, but only ranking 6th in ASEAN in terms of achievements in the Asian arena. There have been many analyses and "dissections" pointing out countless shortcomings that the Sports and Physical Education sector needs to change, along with policies and support from the Government and other ministries and sectors to create synchronization in the new development process.

Weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh (Photo: Organizing Committee).

Recently, the Politburo issued Conclusion 70 on "Developing physical education and sports in the new period". The Government is also preparing to issue the "Strategy for developing physical education and sports to 2030, vision to 2045". All are considered important pillars to guide the development of the country's sports in the coming time. Everything needs more time, so it is not surprising that at this time, at the Paris Olympic qualifying round, Vietnamese sports were worried that they might not meet the target (from 12 to 15 athletes) to participate. Almost all the best possible resources have been put by the Department of Physical Education and Sports for key athletes participating in the point analysis and qualifying rounds in the past time. In the end, Vietnamese sports not only completed but also exceeded the target with 16 athletes winning tickets to France. It is a pity that this time Taekwondo did not have any athletes passing the qualifying round. No wonder people say that in this sport, we are rich and backward, going ahead but falling behind. The "number" has been achieved, but what about the "quality"? The fact that we continue to only rank 6th in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of athletes participating in the Olympics (after Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines) is no longer too important. What the public is more interested in right now is whether the Vietnamese sports delegation can win at least 1 medal, instead of empty-handed like at Tokyo 2020? According to professional analysis, names like Nguyen Huy Hoang, Vo Thi My Tien (swimming), Nguyen Thi Huong (canoeing), Pham Thi Hue (rowing) or Tran Thi Nhi Yen (athletics) all only hope to surpass themselves, because of the obvious inferiority in class compared to the Olympic level. Nguyen Thuy Linh, Le Duc Phat (badminton) hope to pass the group stage. The martial artists Vo Thi Kim Anh, Ha Thi Linh (boxing) and Hoang Thi Tinh (judo) all only hope to win. Nguyen Thi That (cycling) - a racer who has improved thanks to the opportunity to compete for a Belgian team - also only hopes to achieve the best possible results, it is difficult to compete for medals. The hope of competing for medals is narrowed down to Trinh Van Vinh (weightlifting), Trinh Thu Vinh, Le Thi Mong Tuyen (shooting) and Do Thi Anh Nguyet, Le Quoc Phong (archery). Analyzing further, hope is mainly placed on the two athletes with the same name Vinh in weightlifting and shooting. With the current world ranking of 8-9 in the 61kg category, Van Vinh needs a breakthrough in performance to hope for a bronze medal. Thu Vinh is also expected to be able to make a surprise, due to the nature of shooting (the line between failure and success is very fragile) and she is being led by expert Park Chung-gun, who led Xuan Vinh to win "gold" 8 years ago. Looking at countries in the region such as Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines, they all have gold hopes at this Olympics, thanks to their own strengths that have been built and consolidated for a long time. In fact, Vietnamese sports also had strengths and hopes, but the strong investment to maintain and promote their position is not commensurate. It can be seen that, from the trepidation before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vietnamese sports need strong changes in investment and development of high-performance sports. In other words, whether or not we win medals at Paris 2024 will not be as important as what we will do to create sustainable development in some key sports, towards future Asian and Olympic arenas. Source: https://dantri.com.vn/tam-diem/the-thao-viet-nam-truoc-dau-truong-olympic-20240721124024591.htm