Former Nghe An athlete is passionate about teaching swimming

From the diver

Born in 1986 in a family of 6 siblings in Dien Hoa commune (Dien Chau), Ngo Van Doan said that, compared to his friends in the countryside, he had a rather peaceful childhood. His father was an officer of the Department of Physical Education and Sports (now the Department of Culture and Sports), his mother was a primary school teacher, and he was the only son and youngest child in the family, so he was pampered by the whole family.

Because Doan's hometown has many canals, rivers and lakes, Doan's father paid great attention to equipping his children with swimming skills to prevent drowning accidents. During summer vacations, Doan and her sisters were often sent by their father to Vinh city to learn swimming at the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center (now the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center). When Doan was in 6th grade, she was able to go to Vinh to learn swimming. Every day, she went to the pool to practice and watch the athletes of the swimming and diving team practice. After nearly a month, Doan was able to swim proficiently.

Recognizing Doan's outstanding swimming qualities, the coaches at the Sports Training Center approached Doan and his father to recruit him to become a swimmer for the province. However, because he was not used to living away from home and being independent, it was not until 2 years later, in 2000, when he finished 8th grade, that Doan realized that becoming a swimmer was suitable for him.

In August 2000, Doan was selected to join the swimming and diving department of Nghe An Sports Training Center. And the boy from Dien Chau wasCoach Ho Phi Luoc -diving instructor of the Diving Orientation Center.

“On the first day I entered the Center, on August 25, 2000, Mr. Luoc told me: “I wanted to recruit you since you first learned to swim 2 years ago. But it’s not too late now, let’s try to achieve many achievements in diving.” That warm, sincere encouragement from the teacher gave me a lot of confidence on the path to becoming a high-performance athlete,” Ngo Van Doan said.

Although he was trained later than most other talented athletes, Ngo Van Doan soon demonstrated his ability and became one of the athletes who were oriented to be trained in the province's diving sport. One year after entering the Provincial Sports Training Center, in 2021, Doan won 2 Gold Medals in the distances of 400m and 800m in the fins at the National Swimming and Diving Club Championship of Region 1 held in Hanoi. In the following 2 consecutive years, also at this tournament, Doan participated in all 4 distances of 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m in the fins and won Gold Medals.

Despite his impressive achievements at the National Swimming and Diving Club Championships, Ngo Van Doan was not lucky enough to compete at the National Swimming and Diving Championships - the highest level tournament in swimming and diving. From 2003 to 2006, at this tournament (including the 2006 National Sports Festival), the highest achievement he achieved was a Silver Medal in 2005.

According to coach Ho Phi Luoc, Ngo Van Doan is one of the students who left him with the most regrets, because for many objective reasons his performance did not match his ability.

In November 2006, after the Sports Congress did not achieve the expected results, Ngo Van Doan retired from competition.

Although my athletic career only lasted for more than 6 years, it was a time filled with memories. The happiest moments were the moments of fun after hard training sessions with my brothers and sisters in the swimming pool, the sessions of completing the rigorous training program of the 1500m distance, being informed by the teacher that I had achieved a result close to winning a medal, the times when I received training equipment such as swimming trunks, swimming goggles, fins..., and then the occasions of celebrating Vietnamese Teachers' Day, sitting together listening to the teacher's confidences.

But there are also sad memories of the days when I was not well prepared for practice, did not complete the lesson plan, did not swim well enough, was punished with extra practice, and was punished with swimming until noon.

- Former diver Ngo Van Doan.

…to “Mr. Doan, the swimming teacher”

After retiring from competition, Ngo Van Doan studied Physical Education at Vinh University. After graduating, Doan was accepted by the Board of Directors of the Provincial Sports Training Center to work as a swimming coach. In his new position, Doan discovered good athletes, leading students to win many medals at national youth swimming and diving competitions such as Nguyen Thi Huong, Dau Nguyen Quang Sang, Nguyen Thi Thao, Nguyen Van Phu...

By mid-2016, due to unfavorable conditions, Ngo Van Doan had to resign from his coaching job. In addition to teaching swimming on contract at schools, thanks to the movement of teaching children to swim that people pay attention to, Doan has more work at swimming pool businesses in the city. The name "Mr. Doan teaches swimming" is therefore known to many students and parents in Vinh city and neighboring districts. Students who attend his courses are confident, bold and all of them graduate with very good swimming skills.

The most important thing about learning to swim is to prevent drowning accidents. However, in reality, there are cases where children who know how to swim still drown because they do not have the skills to handle accidents in the water. Therefore, learning to swim is not enough, it is necessary to teach children safety skills. That is, teach them safety knowledge when participating in the water environment and recognize dangerous water environments so that they do not go in to play or swim.

Former athlete Ngo Van Doan

In April 2019, Doan was recruited by the Vinh City People's Committee to teach Physical Education at Hung Chinh Secondary School. However, since 2017, he has been a coach for the city's swimming team participating in the annual Green Race Swimming Tournament and always won the first prize overall. Notably, at the 9th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival in 2022, the city's swimming team won 9 Gold Medals to "dominate" this sport.

Also under the training of Ngo Van Doan, at the mass swimming competitions of the Education and Training sector, the Vinh City Swimming Team has always been at the top in terms of the number of participating students as well as the achievements. For example, in 2023, it won 2 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals, 7 Bronze Medals at the National Youth and Student Swimming and Rescue Competition; won 1 Silver Medal, 3 Bronze Medals at the National High School Sports Competition.

Currently, Doan also runs a swimming class at home and is the head of the Swimming Club. He confided that with swimming classes, he does not focus too much on "economic" development but also hopes to be able to help society and the community to prevent drowning, limit the pain and loss caused by drowning. Thinking like that, he always enthusiastically instructs, guides and reminds the children of each swimming movement, physical training to improve health as well as instructs on drowning prevention skills.

Currently, Ngo Van Doan has a happy family with a former female martial arts athlete, and a daughter and son studying at Hung Dung Primary School (Vinh City). The two children were taught swimming by their father since they were young, and are now young swimmers in the national student swimming movement. This former diving athlete is also always concerned about the development of swimming and diving in particular and the province's sports in general.

“To further develop the swimming movement, there needs to be more swimming pools, four-season swimming pools, more semi-professional swimming clubs that practice year-round, and more competitions organized to discover talented athletes and create a source for the province's high-performance swimming and diving teams,” Ngo Van Doan shared./.