Few bright spots, many failures On the evening of August 7, the last medal hope of the Vietnamese sports delegation, weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh, failed in all 3 times of the 128kg snatch, the men's weightlifting category under 61kg at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Van Vinh dropped the weight and fell to the floor, leaving the competition in helplessness and disappointment, which is the image of the Vietnamese sports delegation at the Olympics. Although there is still 1 athlete who has not competed (Nguyen Thi Huong competing in the canoeing qualifying round of the women's 200m single sculls), it can be said that the Vietnamese sports delegation has had a second consecutive Olympic Games empty-handed. There is something regrettable when Trinh Thu Vinh has entered the finals twice in the shooting event, with a very clear chance of competing for a medal. However, in his first time participating in the Olympics, the shooter born in 2000 did not have the necessary "toughness", along with a shooting technique that still needs to be improved a lot.

Trinh Thu Vinh entered the finals of 2 shooting events.

Thu Vinh's achievements of ranking 4th in the 10m air pistol event and 7th in the 25m sport pistol event are still commendable. It should be noted that before winning the gold and silver medals at the 2016 Olympics, Hoang Xuan Vinh only ranked 4th in the 2012 Olympics. If invested in, Thu Vinh has many opportunities to compete for medals at the next Olympics. Besides Thu Vinh, the bright spot of the Vietnamese sports delegation is perhaps the best achievement of Pham Thi Hue's career (rowing), when she reached the quarterfinals. Training in the light category but having to compete in the heavy category with opponents who are superior in terms of physique and physical strength, the performance of the Vietnamese rower deserves a score of 10. Besides Trinh Thu Vinh and Pham Thi Hue, most of the remaining athletes of the Vietnamese sports delegation were not successful, even failed in an incomprehensible way.

Huy Hoang's inexplicable decline

For example, in the case of Huy Hoang, in both the 800m freestyle and 1,500m freestyle, he could not defeat himself, "putting himself in reverse gear" with very poor results. The swimmer from Quang Binh received major investment but the parameters were disappointing, it is clear that after the 2024 Paris Olympics, the problems of Vietnam's number 1 swimmer need to be "dissected". The losses of Vo Thi Kim Anh and Ha Thi Linh (boxing), Le Quoc Phong and Do Thi Anh Nguyet (archery), Hoang Thi Tinh (judo), Vo Thi My Tien (swimming), Le Thi Mong Tuyen (shooting), Nguyen Thi That (biking) ... were all within predictions. Meanwhile, Thuy Linh and Duc Phat, although having 1 victory in badminton, were all against opponents with lower rankings. For Trinh Van Vinh (weightlifting), failing in all 3 times of the lowest registered lift of 128kg showed the helplessness of him and the entire Vietnamese sports delegation at the Olympic Games. Where is Vietnamese sports compared to Southeast Asia? In fact, the failure of Vietnamese sports in Paris was predicted early, when athletes came to the biggest playground on the planet with limited quantity and quality. Specifically, Vietnamese sports have a total of 16 athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics, including 2 special athletes in athletics and swimming. Here is a comparison: Thailand has 51 athletes passing the qualifying round, 3 times higher than Vietnam. The following countries are Indonesia (29), Malaysia (26), Philippines (22). Vietnam is only ranked 6th in Southeast Asia, higher than Timor Leste, Laos (4), Brunei, Cambodia (3) and Myanmar (2). But it is worth mentioning that Vietnamese sports do not have a real spearhead to be able to compete for medals fairly. Even Trinh Thu Vinh only relies on luck and has not yet reached the level of a top-class shooter.

Philippines has 2 gold medals in gymnastics

Because no athlete has a chance to win a medal, the Vietnamese delegation only set a modest goal of "striving" or "winning over oneself". Looking at Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia... are all confident of winning medals, even gold medals. As of the morning of August 8, the Philippines owns two gold medals in gymnastics from Carlos Yulo, in addition to a bronze medal from Villegas in the women's 50kg boxing category. Meanwhile, after defeating Guo Qing (China) in the final match of the women's 49kg taekwondo category, female boxer Panipak Wongpattanakit successfully defended her Olympic gold medal. Before winning the first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, Thailand owned a silver medal in men's singles badminton from Kunlavut Vitidsarn, a silver medal in men's 61kg weightlifting from Theerapong Silachai and a bronze medal in women's 55kg boxing from Suwannapheng. Indonesia owns a bronze medal in women's singles badminton from Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. Malaysia won two bronze medals from Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (badminton men's doubles) and Lee Zii Jia (badminton men's singles). These are also the countries that won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, showing stable performance in a fierce playground like the Olympics. There is a paradox that Vietnam's sports team is always in the top of the SEA Games, even ranked No. 1 in the two most recent regional games (SEA Games 31 and 32), but when competing in the Asian Games or Olympics, they "suck in the smoke" of the above countries. After the competition, everyone returns. The problems of Vietnam's sports team are always pointed out after each Asian Games and Olympics. Remember, after the empty-handed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, many lessons were learned by the sports industry, but then Vietnam's sports team continued to fail at this tournament.

TTVN "disappears" from the Olympic playground

Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh - former Director of the Department of High Performance Sports (General Department of Sports and Physical Training, now the Department of Sports and Physical Training), repeatedly emphasized that if Vietnam Sports continues to invest widely like in the SEA Games, it will be difficult to do anything at the Asiad or the Olympics. It can be clearly seen in many recent SEA Games that the leading countries in Southeast Asia no longer pay too much attention to or care about achievements, while Vietnam Sports still has to be the top or number 1.

TTVN still invests widely in the SEA Games playground. Photo: SN

At the 2023 SEA Games, Vietnam ranked first overall, with a total of 355 medals, including 136 gold medals, 105 silver medals, and 114 bronze medals. Previously, Vietnam won first place twice when the 2003 SEA Games and 2022 SEA Games were held at home. However, the resounding achievements in the regional arena do not truly reflect the development of a sport. In addition to the scattered and unfocused investment, Vietnam's sports are weak in terms of facilities, regimes, nutrition, application of science and technology, limited socialization of sports, and lack of synchronous and systematic development from the grassroots, local, and school levels... These are clearly visible problems, but solving them is not simple because it requires the joint efforts of the whole society.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/the-thao-viet-nam-that-bai-o-lympic-paris-vi-dau-2309708.html