Few bright spots, many failures. On the evening of August 7th, the last medal hope of the Vietnamese delegation, weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh, failed in all three attempts at the 128kg snatch in the men's under 61kg weightlifting event at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Van Vinh dropped the weight and fell to the floor, leaving the competition in helplessness and overwhelming disappointment – a stark contrast to the image of the Vietnamese team at the Olympic Games. Although one more athlete has yet to compete (Nguyen Thi Huong competed in the qualifying round of the women's 200m single sculls canoeing), it can be concluded that the Vietnamese delegation will have a second consecutive Olympic Games without any medals. There is something regrettable about Trinh Thu Vinh reaching the finals twice in shooting, having a very clear chance to win a medal. However, in her first Olympic appearance, the shooter born in 2000 lacked the necessary "toughness," and her shooting technique still needs significant improvement.
Trinh Thu Vinh advanced to the finals in two shooting events.
Thu Vinh's fourth-place finish in the 10m air pistol and seventh in the 25m sport pistol is nonetheless very commendable. It's worth noting that before winning the gold and silver medals at the 2016 Olympics, Hoang Xuan Vinh only finished fourth at the 2012 Olympics. With proper investment, Thu Vinh has a good chance of winning medals at the next Olympic Games. Besides Thu Vinh, perhaps the bright spot for the Vietnamese delegation was the best performance of Pham Thi Hue's career (rowing), reaching the quarterfinals. Having trained in the lightweight category but competing in the heavyweight category against opponents superior in physique and strength, the Vietnamese rower's performance deserves a perfect 10. Apart from Trinh Thu Vinh and Pham Thi Hue, most of the remaining athletes in the Vietnamese delegation were unsuccessful, some even failing in inexplicably.
Huy Hoang's inexplicable decline
For example, in the case of Huy Hoang, in both the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle events, he failed to overcome his own limitations, "reversing" with very poor results. The swimmer from
Quang Binh received significant investment, but his performance was disappointing. Clearly, after the 2024 Paris Olympics, the problems of Vietnam's number one swimmer need to be thoroughly examined. 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 (cycling)... were all predictable. Meanwhile, Thuy Linh and Duc Phat, despite having one victory in badminton, were both against lower-ranked opponents. For Trinh Van Vinh (weightlifting), failing in all three attempts at the lowest registered weightlifting weight of 128kg demonstrates his and the entire Vietnamese sports delegation's helplessness at the Olympic Games.
Where does the Vietnamese sports delegation stand compared to Southeast Asia? In reality, the failure of the Vietnamese sports delegation in Paris was predicted early on, as the athletes arrived at the biggest sporting event on the planet with limitations in both quantity and quality. Specifically, the Vietnamese sports delegation has a total of 16 athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics, including 2 athletes with special exemptions in athletics and swimming. For comparison: Thailand has 51 athletes who qualified, more than 3 times higher than Vietnam. The next countries are Indonesia (29), Malaysia (26), and the Philippines (22). Vietnam only ranks 6th in Southeast Asia, ahead of Timor Leste, Laos (4), Brunei, Cambodia (3), and Myanmar (2). But the point is that the Vietnamese sports delegation lacks a real spearhead to compete for medals on equal terms. Even Trinh Thu Vinh relies solely on luck and hasn't yet reached the level of a top-tier marksman.
The Philippines won two gold medals in gymnastics.
Because no Vietnamese athlete had a clear chance of winning a medal, the Vietnamese delegation set a modest goal of "striving" or "overcoming themselves." Looking at other Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia... were all confident of winning medals, even gold medals. As of the morning of August 8th, the Philippines had two gold medals in gymnastics (Carlos Yulo) and a bronze medal (Villegas) in the women's 50kg boxing category. Meanwhile, after defeating Guo Qing (China) in the women's 49kg taekwondo final, female martial artist Panipak Wongpattanakit successfully defended her Olympic gold medal. Before winning their first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, Thailand had already secured a silver medal in men's badminton (Kunlavut Vitidsarn), a silver medal in men's 61kg weightlifting (Theerapong Silachai), and a bronze medal in women's 55kg boxing (Suwannapheng). Indonesia had a bronze medal in women's badminton (Gregoria Mariska Tunjung). Malaysia won two bronze medals through Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (men's doubles badminton) and Lee Zii Jia (men's singles badminton). These were also the countries that won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, demonstrating consistent performance in a fiercely competitive arena like the Games. Ironically, Vietnam consistently ranks among the top teams at the SEA Games, even achieving first place in the two most recent regional tournaments (SEA Games 31 and 32), yet when competing at the Asian Games or the Olympics,
they often fall behind the aforementioned nations. The problems of Vietnamese sports are always highlighted after each Asian Games and Olympic Games. Remember, after the unsuccessful 2020 Tokyo Olympics, many lessons were learned, but Vietnam continued to fail at this year's Games.
Vietnam "disappears" from the Olympic arena.
Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh - former Director of the High-Performance Sports Department (General Department of Sports and Physical Training, now the Department of Sports and Physical Training), has repeatedly emphasized that if Vietnamese sports continue to invest in a scattered manner as in the SEA Games, it will be difficult to achieve anything at the Asian Games or the Olympics. It is very clear from many recent SEA Games that leading Southeast Asian countries no longer focus too much on, or care about, achievements, while Vietnamese sports still need to be at the top or number one.
Vietnam continues to diversify its investments across the SEA Games arena. Photo: SN
At the 2023 SEA Games, Vietnam topped the medal table with a total of 355 medals, including 136 gold, 105 silver, and 114 bronze. Prior to that, Vietnam had twice won the overall medal table at the 2003 and 2022 SEA Games held on home soil. However, these resounding achievements in regional competitions do not accurately reflect the development of the sports sector. Besides scattered and unfocused investment, Vietnam's sports sector suffers from weaknesses in infrastructure, nutrition, application of
science and technology, limited social participation in sports, and a lack of synchronized and systematic development at the grassroots, local, and school levels. These are clearly visible problems, but solving them is not simple and requires the collective effort of the entire society.
Vietnamnet.vn
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/the-thao-viet-nam-that-bai-o-olympic-paris-vi-dau-2309708.html
