Searching for the 2024 Paris Olympics medal in vain

Participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vietnamese sports have 16 athletes, including two athletes participating as special candidates in swimming and athletics. Compared to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the number of Vietnamese athletes passing the qualifying round is lower, showing the reality that the Olympic playground is increasingly fierce and Vietnam does not have many world-class athletes. Looking at the very limited number of athletes participating in the 2024 Olympics, demanding that Vietnamese sports win medals is unrealistic. However, the poor achievements of Vietnamese sports at the 2024 Olympics need to be viewed comprehensively, in order to draw lessons for the future. The failure of "swimmer" Nguyen Huy Hoang in the two events of 800m freestyle and 1,500m freestyle is the clearest proof. Determining that it is difficult to compete for medals, Huy Hoang's goal at the Olympics is only to reach the finals. But in both events, the swimmer from Quang Binh had disappointing results.

Specifically, in the men's 800m freestyle event, Huy Hoang finished with a time of 8 minutes 08 seconds 39, nearly 20 seconds behind the first finisher in the qualifying round, Auboeck Felix (Austria, 7 minutes 48 seconds 49). At the 19th Asian Games, Huy Hoang won a bronze medal with a time of 7 minutes 51 seconds 44. Further, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, also in the 800m event, the swimmer born in 2000 achieved a time of 7 minutes 54 seconds 16. However, from 2024, Huy Hoang's performance indicators began to "go downhill without brakes". In the 800m freestyle event, Huy Hoang's best career achievement was 7 minutes 49 seconds 67. Thus, with what he showed in Paris, he has fallen back about 19 seconds compared to his peak performance. Entering the men's 1,500m freestyle event with the determination to "take revenge", Huy Hoang only achieved a time of 15 minutes 18 seconds 63, far behind his best time of 14 minutes 58 seconds 14. Even compared to his time of 15 minutes 00 seconds 24 at the Tokyo Olympics, the "swimmer" from Quang Binh was nearly 18 seconds behind. Huy Hoang's defeat would not have been worth mentioning if he had not lost to himself in such a confusing way. After the 2024 Paris Olympics, the problems of Vietnam's number one swimmer need to be carefully analyzed, especially the lack of high-class experts, ineffective training, psychology, physical preparation, etc.

In addition to Huy Hoang, 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, as their level was far lower than that of their opponents in the world. Weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh was expected a lot in the men's 61kg weightlifting event, but psychological pressure caused him to compete unsuccessfully. Vietnamese weightlifters failed in all three snatches when registering for 128kg, were not allowed to participate in the clean and jerk event and left the competition earlier than expected. Vietnamese sports also have commendable faces, such as the efforts and best efforts of Nguyen Thuy Linh, Le Duc Phat (badminton), or the best achievement in the history of Vietnamese rowing of Pham Thi Hue. In particular, Trinh Thu Vinh (shooting) left the biggest regret when the Vietnamese female shooter entered the finals twice, ranked 4th in the 10m air pistol event and ranked 7th in the 10m sport pistol event. If she had a little more luck and a strong mentality, Thu Vinh could have completely "touched" the bronze medal. Although she could not win the prestigious Olympic medal, Thu Vinh was the brightest spot of Vietnamese sports at the Paris Olympics, deserving of more drastic investment towards the Olympics in 4 years.

Where is Vietnamese sports compared to Southeast Asia?

The failure of Vietnamese sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics was predicted in advance, but once again the limitations and weaknesses of Vietnamese athletes were exposed too clearly, reflecting the level and ineffective and incomplete investment. Right from the qualifying round, we were in the bottom group of Southeast Asia in terms of the number of athletes winning tickets to Paris. Only when there is a strong force participating in the Olympics, then the opportunity to compete for medals will be more feasible for Vietnamese sports.

In the region, Thailand has 51 athletes who have qualified, 3 times higher than Vietnam. The following countries also have a large number of athletes participating, namely Indonesia (29), Malaysia (26), Philippines (22). Vietnam is only ranked 6th in Southeast Asia (16), higher than Timor Leste, Laos (4), Brunei, Cambodia (3) and Myanmar (2). The number of participating athletes is limited, and there is no real key sport, so Vietnamese sports mainly rely on luck. That is also the reason why the sports industry, instead of setting a specific medal target in a sport or athlete, only sets the goal of "striving for a medal", or "surpassing oneself"... While the Vietnamese sports delegation is empty-handed, Philippine sports owns two gold medals (HCV) at the 2024 Olympics in gymnastics by athlete Carlos Yulo. The Philippines also has a bronze medal (HCĐ) by Villegas in the women's 50kg boxing category. Thailand won a gold medal in women's 49kg taekwondo by Panipak Wongpattanakit, a silver medal in men's singles badminton by Kunlavut Vitidsarn, a silver medal in men's 61kg weightlifting by Theerapong Silachai, a bronze medal in women's 55kg boxing by Suwannapheng and a bronze medal in women's 49kg weightlifting by Surodchana Khambao. Indonesia won a gold medal in speed climbing by Veddriq Leonardo and a bronze medal in women's singles badminton by Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. Malaysia won two bronze medals by Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (badminton men's doubles) and Lee Zii Jia (badminton men's singles).

Looking more broadly at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while Vietnam's sports team was "empty" of medals, the Philippines team had 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals, 1 bronze medal, ranked 50th. Thailand had 1 gold medal, 1 bronze medal, ranked 59th. Malaysia won 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal, ranked 74th on the final rankings. In a much less harsh playground than the 2024 Olympics, the 2023 Asiad, these countries also surpassed Vietnam's sports. Specifically, Thailand (12 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 32 bronze medals) ranked 8th in Asia, followed by Indonesia (7 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 18 bronze medals). The Malaysian, Philippine and Singaporean sports teams ranked next. Meanwhile, Vietnam ranked 6th in Southeast Asia and 21st in Asia at the 2023 Asiad when it only won 3 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 19 bronze medals. Vietnam's three gold medals were won by shooter Pham Quang Huy (shooting), the 4-person women's sepak takraw team and the karate team in the performance category. Of these three gold medals, only shooting is an Olympic sport. But then Pham Quang Huy failed to compete successfully in the qualifying rounds, missing the Olympics in Paris. Thus, from Asiad to Olympics, Vietnamese sports have been far behind 5-6 countries in the region in terms of achievements. It is worth mentioning that Vietnam has led the SEA Games for two consecutive times (2022 and 2023), never being out of the top 3 in the region, but every time it reaches the Asian and world levels, it "breathes in the smoke" of its regional opponents.

Vietnamese sports have had Tran Hieu Ngan (silver medal in taekwondo at the 2000 Olympics), Hoang Anh Tuan (silver medal in weightlifting at the 2008 Olympics), Tran Le Quoc Toan (bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics), Hoang Xuan Vinh (gold and silver medal in shooting at the 2016 Olympics) honored in the world arena. However, at the two consecutive Olympics in Tokyo (2020) and Paris (2024), we disappointed with "no" medals.

The sad reality of Vietnamese sports

As analyzed, with a very limited number of athletes passing the qualifying round and no spearheads, it is inevitable that Vietnamese sports will face difficulties in the Olympic playground. But should we accept this weakness from one period to another, while other countries in the Southeast region show signs of breaking through, or at least not falling into a "empty-handed" situation? The assessment of the achievements of the Vietnamese sports delegation at the 2024 Olympics must be comprehensive, looking directly at the problems we have been facing for many years. It can be clearly seen in many recent SEA Games that the leading countries in Southeast Asia are no longer paying too much attention, mainly sending young athletes and not participating in "village" sports. They tend to gradually abandon the SEA Games and focus on investing in the Asiad and the Olympics. Vietnamese sports still consider the SEA Games the biggest arena, participating with a large number of athletes, always aiming to compete for the top spot. At the 2023 SEA Games, Vietnam ranked first overall, with a total of 355 medals, including 136 gold, 105 silver, and 114 bronze. This result far exceeded the "modest" target of winning 90 to 120 gold medals and entering the top 3 overall.

This is also a historic achievement for Vietnamese sports when it first won the overall title at a SEA Games held in another country. Previously, Vietnam won the overall title twice when the 2003 SEA Games and 2022 SEA Games were held at home. The 32nd SEA Games were a success and just a few months later, Vietnamese sports failed at the Asiad in Hangzhou (China). In fact, winning 3 gold medals at the 2023 Asiad is the completion of the target (2 to 5 gold medals), but it is difficult to consider this a result that satisfies fans. From the paradoxes of "leading the SEA Games but falling far behind in the Asiad and Olympics" time and time again, Vietnamese sports seem to have not learned their lesson and found the right and effective direction. We still invest widely in regional sports in the "3 in 1" style, that is, investing in the SEA Games and aiming for the Asiad and Olympics. This approach clearly does not yield results. The case of former athlete Nguyen Thi Anh Vien is the most typical example of investment chasing regional achievements. With tens of billions of VND spent on Anh Vien over many years, the sports industry, instead of helping the Can Tho athlete focus on 1-2 strong events to compete for medals in the Asian Games or the world, turned her into a "gold harvester" at the SEA Games (a total of 25 gold medals). As a result, Anh Vien, after passing her peak, only reached the regional level, although experts assessed that she could "exceed the threshold".

In addition to the lack of focused investment and the disease of achievement, the limitations and weaknesses in facilities, the lack of application of technology, science, nutrition in sports, and the inability to mobilize resources from society (socialization of sports) are also the main reasons for the decline of Vietnamese sports. Witnessing the training places of Vietnamese athletes, we can see how difficult it is for them to pursue a sports career. There are sports such as gymnastics, table tennis, swimming, shooting... whose training equipment was purchased in 2003 but has not been replaced, mainly "patchwork", using whatever is available. The income of athletes, even those on the national team, is mostly only a few million VND... In reality, the degradation and lack of facilities, nutrition, health care, technology application... can hardly be blamed entirely on the country's sports managers. It is important to know that each year, the sports industry receives only about 800 billion VND from the state. This amount is only enough to meet basic needs for regimes, food, training, and it is difficult to invest in key areas like other countries. Vietnamese sports are already difficult, athletes suffer many disadvantages, sacrifice is a last resort, in recent years, a few sad stories from embezzlement of food money, salaries in table tennis, gymnastics have been exposed, which is a black mark in the development of the country's sports. Mr. Dang Ha Viet, Director of the Department of Physical Education and Sports, once admitted that developing high-performance sports cannot be done in just one or two days. To have Olympic and Asian champions, we need a process that requires a systematic system, from developing physical education to determining which subjects are key, there needs to be a selection system in 63 provinces and cities and almost at all levels, from primary school level there must be a competition system, from which many talents can be selected for Vietnamese sports.

Vietnamese sports also need a comprehensive, scientific and methodical process, from selection, training, coaching, recovery, injury prevention and treatment, and a scientific team with modern equipment to support the work of testing, evaluating athletes, analyzing opponents and especially key sports need a competition system from primary school level. "Major economies will solve many problems of high-performance sports. That is investment, application of science and technology, high-quality human resources, calling for funding sources to invest in high-performance sports. For sports achievements to be as desired, we need many more factors from investment to training, selection, and tournament systems," Mr. Dang Ha Viet emphasized.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/thuc-trang-buon-cua-the-thao-viet-nam-sau-hai-ky-olympic-trang-tay-20240805152323648.htm