7th National Sports Festival 2014: Impressions of Anh Vien

At the end of the competitions at the Games, it was not the Hanoi delegation's first place with 223 gold medals (including converted gold medals) that impressed observers, but the achievement of 18 gold medals won by swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien that really shocked everyone.

At the age of 18, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien made history in the country's sports by winning 18 gold medals (including 17 individual gold medals and 1 relay gold medal) at a National Sports Festival.

It was predicted that Anh Vien would win medals and monopolize gold medals in all four swimming styles, but the number of 18 gold medals was beyond many people's imagination.

With 18 gold medals, Anh Vien is truly the best athlete of the University.

The reason is that in many previous domestic competitions, Anh Vien usually only won 8-10 gold medals and did not continue to compete, even though she still had the ability to win medals. However, because the Sports Festival is a playground organized every 4 years, it is understandable that Anh Vien had to stretch herself in all the events.

And with this achievement, Anh Vien alone defeated a large force of nearly 100 swimmers from 18 other teams to bring the Army to the number 1 position in the entire team in swimming.

Competing in 20/40 events of the entire tournament, accounting for nearly half of the gold medals, Anh Vien broke all records for an athlete winning gold medals at a National Sports Festival, notably the achievement of 14 gold medals by Nguyen Kieu Oanh (in 1990) and Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyen with 11 gold medals in 2010.

In addition, Anh Vien is also the owner of 3 national championships and 11 records of the Games. “Anh Vien is a very special and excellent case. The story of an athlete winning the most gold medals, especially in swimming, is not strange to Vietnamese sports, but in the past, excellent swimmers could still lose a few events, but with Anh Vien, she did not lose a single individual gold medal. Regarding specific achievements from the events, in general, Anh Vien met the requirements of the coaching board in this period and I think that the competition at the Games is necessary for Anh Vien,” Mr. Dinh Viet Hung, General Secretary of the Vietnam Aquatic Sports Association, commented on Anh Vien’s performance at the Games.

If including the converted gold medals from SEA Games 27 and ASIAD 17, Anh Vien alone brought home 23 gold medals for the Army sports delegation, accounting for nearly a quarter of the delegation's total medals of 106 gold medals (including converted gold medals). Anh Vien's gold medals are only one less than the number of gold medals of the 16 sports delegations at the bottom of the overall delegation rankings.

According to TTVH