Chef de Mission looks at Vietnam’s Olympic preparation, goals

Some of athletes have already arrived in Paris because of their early competition schedules and training programmes, but the majority including managers, officials and staff will join them after a 12-hour flight from Hanoi.

Prior to their flight, Viet, Director of the Sports Authority of Vietnam (SAV), reviewed the national athletes' efforts to secure their places and spoke about their hopes over the 17-days of competitions.

"After all qualifications, our 16 athletes have earned their spots including 14 automatic ones and two wildcards. It is one more than our plan and accurately reflects the development of Vietnam’s sport in this period," said Viet.

"It is due to the SAV's investment plan for athletes in 14 sports so that they could reach Olympics standards. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also held a conference discussing about solutions to raise athletes' level to have a chance winning medals at the Asian Games and Olympics. We have strictly been applying these solutions and gradually achieved initial results."

Among the sports, swimming and athletics are considered key. Swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang officially qualified in the men's 800m freestyle while his teammate Vo Thi My Tien received a wildcard to take part in the women's 200m individual medley event.

Meanwhile, young runner Tran Thi Nhi Yen earned a universality place in women's 100m.

"They are two basic sports of the Olympics and considered a measure of the development of a country's sports industry. All countries have paid high attention on these sports, applying a lot of research on training science and technology. It leads to higher performance of athletes and Asian, world or Olympic records are constantly broken.

"We also have good athletes such as Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, Hoang Quy Phuoc, Pham Thanh Bao, Tran Hung Nguyen, Nguyen Huu Kim Son, Hoang and Tien and the youngest one Nguyen Thuy Hien, but they are still at the regional level.

"To reach continental and world levels, we need lot of time and more importantly, strong investment in science, technology, and training," he said.

Although Vietnam has one Olympic spot more than its set target, the SAV director still regretted that athletes of expected sports did not complete their task, missing this Olympic edition.

"Taekwondo, gymnastics, table tennis and 4x400m women's team were expected to qualify after their remarkable progress during the preparation. However, it was not enough to reach their target and they failed," said Viet.

He added that some sports such as wrestling, boxing, women's recurve team and rowing women's pair were also reported to have seen a breakthrough, but it did not happen.

He said it showed that international competitions were really tough, as it was closely correlated with a country's economy, science and technology, and required a lot of resources.

Asked about Vietnam’s preparation and hopes in Paris, Viet confirmed that the Games were the most important and most competitive in 2024 and all Vietnamese participants were well trained and were ready.

"Athletes and coaches are given best training conditions locally and internationally and well taken care to recover after activities. Works on improving their mentality is also conducted. All are to ensure they would take highest result in Paris," he said.

"Despite a big gap of level between our athletes and world rivals, we still set a target of taking medal(s) from these games. Athletes from shooting, archery and weightlifting are our medal hopes."

Vietnam will take part in 11 sports. Archers are the first to compete on July 25, while canoeist Nguyen Thi Huong will be the last in competition, on August 8.

Badminton player Le Duc Phat and cyclist Nguyen Thi That will be the national flag bearers at the opening ceremony on July 26.