The exhausted journey of Vietnamese sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Báo Thanh niên•19/11/2024
Another empty-handed Olympics for the Vietnamese sports delegation. On August 7, 8 years ago, shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh made history with a gold medal at the Rio Olympics. And September 7, 2024 is a sad milestone when Vietnam considers the Paris Olympics closed without any medals. Although there is still 1 event left to compete, there is very - very little hope...
Shooter Thu Vinh ranked 7th, regretfully saying goodbye to the 2024 Paris Olympics
Vietnam's sports team will compete in 11 sports at the 2024 Olympics with 16 athletes competing in 11 sports. The most experienced athlete is Pham Thi Hue (34 years old) in rowing and the youngest are 2 athletes Tran Thi Nhi Yen (athletics) and Vo Thi My Tien (swimming), both 19 years old. The Vietnamese sports team set a goal of winning at least 1 medal in Paris with the biggest expectation placed on Trinh Thu Vinh (shooting), but in the end, we still returned empty-handed. However, there are still bright spots to hope for when looking at the journey that young athletes have gone through in this Olympics.
Trinh Thu Vinh (shooting)
Shooting is still Vietnam's most successful sport in the Olympic arena with Trinh Xuan Vinh winning a gold and silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Coming to the Paris Olympics, Trinh Thu Vinh was the number 1 hope of Vietnamese sports and in fact she was very close to a medal. The first final event that Thu Vinh competed in was the women's 10m air pistol. She closely followed strong opponents from Korea and India to continuously be in the top 4, at one point ranking 3rd with Indian shooter Bhaker Manu. However, in the final shots, according to expert Park Chung-gun, it seemed that Thu Vinh was emotionally affected and lacked concentration on the decisive shots. She missed the bull's eye quite a lot, only getting 9 points and gradually losing hope and finally had to stop in fourth place with a total score of 198.6; 3 points behind third-place India at 221.7 - missing out on the bronze medal.
Trinh Thu Vinh says goodbye to the Paris Olympics with many regrets
Five days later, she entered the finals of the second event, the women's 25m sport pistol. This is a very tough event, with just one unfocused shot that can result in the shooter being eliminated immediately. Thu Vinh started the game very well when she started the first 10-shot series with 7 hits, ranking 2nd only to Yang-jiin of Korea (8 hits). But in the following series, she could not maintain her form and accepted to stop at 7th place. Leaving the Paris Olympics without a medal, Thu Vinh sent her thanks and apologies to the leaders, fans, and press and promised to come back stronger, first of all in the continental competitions. Although it was unfortunate, it cannot be denied that Thu Vinh's achievements at this Olympics were very positive for a shooter born in 2000. Vietnamese sports fans will certainly continue to follow, support, and continue to hope for a Thu Vinh to shine even brighter in the future.
Le Thi Mong Tuyen
In the rifle event, Le Thi Mong Tuyen is the only representative of Vietnam competing at the Paris Olympics. However, she failed to qualify for the women's 10m air rifle event, finishing 40th out of 43 participating shooters. Mong Tuyen is only 21 years old this year and her first experience at the Olympic arena will certainly be a valuable stepping stone for her to continue conquering the next challenges on her upcoming sports journey.
Mong Tuyen stopped early in her first Olympic appearance.
Trinh Van Vinh (weightlifting)
Only the middle name is different, if Trinh Thu Vinh is the first medal hope, Trinh Van Vinh is the last medal hope of Vietnamese sports at this Olympics. On the evening of August 7, the weightlifter born in 1995 entered the weightlifting competition in the men's under 61 kg category at the Paris Olympics. Weightlifting is not a strong sport of Vietnam, especially when Trinh Van Vinh has to face very strong opponents such as world and Olympic champion Li Fabin or weightlifters from the US, Thailand, Malaysia,...
Trinh Van Vinh has not been able to surpass himself.
Trinh Van Vinh registered for a snatch of 128 kg but failed all three times. Unfortunately, in other tournaments, he had successfully lifted higher weights many times, but the psychological burden of his first time participating in the Olympics prevented him from surpassing himself.
Nguyen Thuy Linh (badminton)
Vietnam's number 1 female tennis player came to the Paris Olympics as an athlete in the world's top 20 with impressive performance in BWF tournaments, but her hope of winning a medal was not really too bright.
Nguyen Thuy Linh, although stopped, played very fairly with a strong opponent.
QT
In the opening match, she quickly defeated Australian player Tiffany Ho with a score of 21-6 and 21-3. However, in the second match - also the match to decide the top spot in the group, Thuy Linh could not surprise the world's 11th ranked player Beiwen Zhang (USA). A year ago, she caused a shock when she defeated Beiwen Zhang at the Canada Open badminton tournament and in fact, in this rematch, Thuy Linh also played very fairly, on par with Zhang but in the end lost both games with a close score, saying goodbye to the 2024 Paris Olympics before the threshold of the round of 16. This is probably also the last Olympics for this tennis player born in 1997.
Le Duc Phat (badminton)
Le Duc Phat has an impressive height of 1.8 m and won his first ticket to the Olympics at the age of 26. Like Thuy Linh, Le Duc Phat had an impressive opening match when he won 2-0 against the German player Fabian Roth. This player is ranked below Duc Phat in the world rankings (Fabian Roth - ranked 82). In the second match, Duc Phat (ranked 70 in the world) caused a surprise when he won the first set against his opponent who was ranked far above him in the rankings, Prannoy (India, ranked 13 in the world). However, after the break, the Indian player regained his spirit and accelerated, winning the next 2 sets in a row to win the only ticket of Group K to enter the knockout round.
Le Duc Phat had 2 very commendable matches.
Duc Phat stopped at the Olympic group stage in his first participation, but his performance was commendable and worth looking forward to.
Tran Thi Nhi Yen (athletics)
Nhi Yen (19 years old) came to the Paris Olympics with a special ticket and her goal is to compete, not to win a medal because the 100m "queen" event for women has never been the forte of Asian athletes and Nhi Yen does not have much experience in major arenas. In the preliminary round of this event, Nhi Yen competed in the second group. The runner from Long An had a good start, thereby finishing first in the second group with a time of 11 seconds 81. With this result, Nhi Yen won a place in the first qualifying round. The result of the girl born in 2005 was 7th out of 27 in the preliminary round.
Nhi Yen (left cover) is one of the two youngest athletes of the Vietnamese sports delegation at this Olympics.
REUTERS
In the qualifying round, the Vietnamese athlete was placed in the first heat with world champion Richardson Sha-carri (USA). Although her performance was better than in the preliminary round, she still could not qualify for the next round, saying goodbye to the first Olympics of her career.
Vo Thi My Tien (swimming)
Like Nhi Yen, the remaining Vietnamese athlete who received a special spot, Vo Thi My Tien, could not create any surprises. She competed in group 2, the qualifying round of the women's 200m medley. She did not start impressively in the first 150m, finishing 6th with a time of 1 minute 44 seconds 59. In the last 50m, she tried to accelerate to finish 4th with a time of 2 minutes 17 seconds 18. This result only helped My Tien to rank 27th in the qualifying round.
My Tien's early stop was predictable.
Nguyen Huy Hoang (swimming)
The number 1 swimmer of Vietnamese swimming came to the Paris Olympics after suffering an injury at the 19th ASIAD. For the second time participating in an Olympic Games, Huy Hoang competed in his two favorite long-distance swimming events: 800m freestyle and 1,500m freestyle. In the first event, 800m freestyle, the swimmer born in 2000 ranked only 28th out of 32 athletes participating in the qualifying round and stopped early. He admitted that he did not compete well, despite his mental preparation and international competition experience, he was still overwhelmed when competing against a very strong opponent.
Nguyen Huy Hoang at the 2024 Olympics
REUTERS
And in the men's 1,500m freestyle, Huy Hoang finished 21st out of 27 and stopped at the Paris Olympics without reaching the finals in any event. However, the achievement of winning tickets to the Olympics twice is very remarkable for Huy Hoang - in a sport where Vietnam is still far from world-class.
Nguyen Thi That (bicycle)
For many years, Nguyen Thi That has been the number 1 cyclist in Vietnam. She has also won the Asian championship once but could not surprise the very strong opponents in the women's road cycling event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Nguyen Thi That on the Paris race track
She competed with 92 opponents, including all the strongest female racers in the world such as Kopecky Lotte (Belgium, world rank 1), Vollering Demi (Netherlands, world rank 2), Wiebes Lorena (Netherlands, world rank 3), Longo Borghini Elisa (Italy, world rank 4), Labous Juliette (France, world rank 5)... while Nguyen Thi That was ranked 90th in the world. Vietnam's number 1 cyclist Nguyen Thi That boldly attacked, along with 5 other racers leading the race, creating a gap of up to 6 minutes compared to the group behind but was still unsuccessful and finished 73rd overall.
Ha Thi Linh, Vo Thi Kim Anh (boxing)
There are 2 Vietnamese boxers who won tickets to the Paris Olympics, Ha Thi Linh and Vo Thi Kim Anh. Ha Thi Linh is the most successful boxer of Vietnam at this Olympics when she won 5-0 against Tongan opponent Feofaaki Epenisa to enter the round of 16 in the women's 60 kg category. However, she could not create a surprise against the very strong opponent Yang Wenlu (China) - the reigning ASIAD champion. The mother of 2 children stopped.
Ha Thi Linh is the most successful Vietnamese boxer at this Olympics.
Meanwhile, in the women's 54kg category, Vo Thi Kim Anh stopped early when facing a very strong opponent, Preeti Pawar (India), the current U.22 Asian champion, bronze medalist of the 19th ASIAD in 2022.
Hoang Thi Tinh (judo)
Hoang Thi Tinh lost to Tunisian opponent Oumaima Bedioui and stopped in the first round. This was not a surprising result as Hoang Thi Tinh was rated lower than the reigning African champion Oumaima Bedioui. Escaping the defeat with Ippon was also a commendable effort for Hoang Thi Tinh.
Hoang Thi Tinh stopped early.
Pham Thi Hue (rowing)
After missing out on the Tokyo Olympics (2020) and Rio Olympics (2016), rower Pham Thi Hue made her first appearance on the world rowing stage at the age of 34. Pham Thi Hue ranked 4th in the first qualifying round, then finished second in the play-off round to qualify for the quarter-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the end of the quarter-finals of the women's single sculls, Pham Thi Hue finished in last place (6th), with a time of 7 minutes 56.96 seconds. The rower born in 1990 tried hard to improve her parameters to achieve her best result this year, but could not continue due to her strong opponent.
Pham Thi Hue and Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training Dang Ha Viet
OPTICAL
In the women's heavyweight single rowing final, Pham Thi Hue ranked 5th in group D with an even better result of 7 minutes 47 seconds 84. Pham Thi Hue finished the Olympics in 23rd/24th place overall, but individually she surpassed herself.
Le Quoc Phong, Do Thi Anh Nguyet (archery)
Archer Le Quoc Phong competed in the round of 32 of the men's singles 1 string event against the 2023 Archery World Cup champion Dan Olaru. Despite being underestimated, Le Quoc Phong played hard and even led his opponent at times, but he could not maintain stability and let his Moldovan opponent turn the game around, winning the final match with a score of 6-0.
Both Le Quoc Phong..
... and Anh Nguyet both played well but their opponents were too strong.
As for Do Thi Anh Nguyet, in her second time participating in the Olympics, she also stopped early against her Iranian opponent Mobina Falla. Anh Nguyet had twice excellently equalized the score when the Iranian archer was continuously leading. Although Anh Nguyet failed in the decisive point, which was like a golden goal, it was still commendable for the Vietnamese archer. With a bright smile, Anh Nguyet said that although she had not succeeded, she was satisfied with this result because it marked her progress in her second time coming to the Olympic arena.
Nguyen Thi Huong (canoeing)
Nguyen Thi Huong switched to canoeing from wrestling. At the age of 23, she surprised everyone when she won a ticket to the Olympics. In fact, Nguyen Thi Huong will compete on the afternoon of August 8, but there is almost no hope that she can bring home a medal because the gap in level between Vietnamese canoeing and the world is still very large. Nguyen Thi Huong has set a big goal, will compete to the best of her ability to go as far as possible in the most difficult arena on the planet.
Nguyen Thi Huong is the last Vietnamese athlete to compete at the Paris Olympics.
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