The story of the wrestler 'Black Bảo'.
With dozens of gold medals won, athlete Nguyen Kim Bao is considered a "legend" of traditional Vietnamese wrestling. Although he is nearing the end of his career, he is still receiving significant investment to achieve outstanding results for Nghe An sports in the future.
The boy loves the wrestling festival in his hometown.
Born in 1997, the youngest son in a family of only two siblings in Hamlet 4, Nam Anh Commune (Nam Dan District), Nguyen Kim Bao developed an early interest in wrestling from his time watching wrestling matches, even as a primary school student.King Mai Temple Festival.
This is a famous traditional sport of Nam Dan district, regularly included in this festival held at the beginning of January every year. The image of shirtless wrestlers, wearing loincloths, with bulging, strong muscles, wrestling in the wrestling ring, surrounded by thousands of cheering crowds, was deeply ingrained in the mind of the young village schoolboy at that time. And Bao always dreamed of one day becoming one of those muscular wrestlers competing at the festival.wrestlingIn my hometown of Nam Dan.
Passionate about "learning" wrestling moves and techniques by observing wrestling competitions and diligently training his physical fitness, by early 2011, at less than 14 years old, Nguyen Kim Bao's dream was fulfilled when he was selected for the Nam Anh commune wrestling team to compete at the King Mai Temple Festival. Although he didn't win any titles due to facing older and more experienced wrestlers, his strong physique and high determination caught the attention of Dang Xuan Nghia, a wrestling coach at the Nghe An Sports Training Center (now the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center).
After several tests, in March 2011, Bao was selected to join the center, officially becoming a youth athlete in wrestling.
With his dark complexion, Nguyen Kim Bao was nicknamed "Black Bao" from the moment he entered the training center. Bao said that compared to other athletes of his age group, he was selected 2-3 years later, so he faced more difficulties, from a completely new training and living environment to, especially, the demanding and rigorous professional athlete training process. In this direct combat sport, beginners will experience constant injuries, frequent ear pain, and impacts to the head, hands, and ear cartilage. However, with his passion for sports and a proactive attitude, Nguyen Kim Bao made efforts and gradually improved with each day of training, successively passing the strict selection rounds in the youth team.
In June 2011, Nguyen Kim Bao participated in his first tournament, the National Junior Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships held in Thanh Hoa province. Although he didn't win a medal, this tournament gave him the confidence to conquer subsequent competitions. A year later, at the 14th National Youth and Junior Traditional Wrestling Championships held in Bac Ninh province, Nguyen Kim Bao won the Gold Medal in the junior age group – a promising start to a series of impressive achievements later on.
"Monument" of the traditional wrestling village
In the early years of his career, Nguyen Kim Bao competed in both traditional wrestling and freestyle wrestling. From 2012 to 2014, in addition to the gold medals he won in traditional wrestling, Bao also won gold medals in freestyle wrestling in 2013 and 2014.
By 2015, Nguyen Kim Bao focused solely on traditional Vietnamese wrestling, and from 2016 to the present, this athlete from Nam Dan has won gold medals almost every year at the two most important traditional wrestling tournaments: the National Traditional Wrestling Championship and the National Traditional Wrestling Talent Championship. According to Bao, the gold medal he found most impressive was at...9th National Sports GamesIn 2022, he defeated a very strong opponent in the final, athlete Pham Nhu Kien from the army team.
Considered one of the "legends" in traditional Vietnamese wrestling, Nguyen Kim Bao has only been called up to the national youth team once, in 2014, and has never competed internationally. This is simply because most of his career has been dedicated to traditional wrestling, a discipline lacking international competitions. Currently, within the wrestling-jujitsu department of the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center, only Nguyen Kim Bao, along with athletes Nguyen Ba Luc and Nguyen Van Son, focus entirely on traditional wrestling; the rest compete in both freestyle wrestling and jujitsu.
Throughout his more than 13 years in wrestling, Nguyen Kim Bao has suffered numerous injuries, both major and minor. The most serious was a torn ligament in his right leg in 2020, which prevented him from participating in any tournaments that year. In 2024, despite a persistent back injury, Nguyen Kim Bao still managed to win a gold medal at the Hanoi Traditional Wrestling Tournament for the Phung Hung Cup.
In 2020, Nguyen Kim Bao married a girl from Hung Nguyen. Currently, the couple manages an English language center in Nam Anh commune.
I am always proud to have been born and raised in Nam Dan, a land with a rich tradition of traditional wrestling, which has instilled in me a love and belief in the sport; proud to have brought home gold medals for Nghe An's high-performance sports. My time in sports is limited, so besides striving to train hard to conquer new tournaments, I will also strive to pass on my experience to younger generations so they can continue the success of previous generations.
Athlete Nguyen Kim Bao
Commenting on his student, coach Dang Xuan Nghia - Head of the wrestling and jujitsu department at the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center - said: “Although he is one of the oldest athletes in the department, Nguyen Kim Bao has always shown calmness, diligence, and a willingness to learn over the years. After getting married, his house is 20km from the center, and he commutes back and forth every day, but Bao has never been late for training. During training sessions, Bao always shows enthusiasm and actively teaches younger athletes, becoming a shining example for them in the department.”
Although nearing the end of his career, Nguyen Kim Bao remains a key athlete receiving significant investment, with the immediate goal of achieving high results at the National Traditional Wrestling Championship held on home soil next year, and further aiming to defend his Gold Medal at the 10th National Sports Games in 2026.
Coach Dang Xuan Nghia - Head of the Wrestling and Jujitsu Department of the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center.
