The journey of a 'tiny' athlete who won 3 Bronze Medals at the national disability tournament

From street dancer to a spectacular breakthrough at the National arena

With a modest height of just over 1m, Quynh Trang always makes people easily feel her extremely optimistic, confident and brave spirit. She said that she was unlucky to have suffered from chondromalacia bone disease leading to chondrodysplasia since birth, which made her body unable to develop like a normal person.

At that time, seeing that my child was so small and in poor health, my parents and family were extremely worried. Not only because of my physical condition, but also because they were afraid that my child would live in a state of inferiority and self-consciousness for the rest of his life.

However, what surprised everyone about Trang was that she was not sad or self-conscious about it. In fact, she loved being able to get along with everyone around her, to go to school and class like her peers. And then, she completed 3 levels of education with a good academic record in Vinh city where she was born.

Many of my friends asked me what motivation helped Trang have such great confidence and determination in her life. Trang just smiled and shared: "How can you love others if you don't love yourself? Therefore, the only thing I can do is love myself more, try to live better to realize my dreams to the fullest."

It was that confidence that helped her become one of the most energetic dancers of Beauty Girl, a famous Zumba dance group in Vinh city. Together with 50 members of the dance group, she confidently performed on big and small stages in the province.

After her powerful performances, she caught the attention of two coaches, Nguyen Canh Tuyen - Sports Management Department (Nghe An Department of Culture & Sports) and Nguyen Kim Dong - Vinh City Center for Culture, Sports & Communications.

According to coach Nguyen Kim Dong, Zumba is also a sport that requires participants to have health and dexterity. Along with Trang's passion for participating in sports activities, the coaches realized that this is a girl with great potential for athletics. From those strengths, they directly encouraged her to practice and participate in the season with 3 events in athletics including: discus throw, javelin throw and shot put.

Because these events require outdoor training, while the weather in Nghe An is extremely harsh, it is a real challenge for a small girl like Trang. Along with that, with Trang's body characteristics, her hands and fingers are quite short, so holding the competition equipment is very difficult. Overcoming the pain of having a serious illness and having to try her best in every training session, Quynh Trang also had to reassure herself mentally when entering such a big tournament for the first time.

And then, the results exceeded expectations when I excellently achieved 6.63m in discus throw; 5.7m in javelin throw and 3.22m in shot put in the F40 category. These outstanding achievements helped me receive 3 national bronze medals for the above 3 events.

Multiply the love of life

Until now, Trang still remembers the first days of competing in the city named after Uncle Ho, filled with love from brothers and sisters she had just met for the first time.
Knowing that I come from Nghe An, the hometown of beloved Uncle Ho, athletes from other provinces always come to encourage, guide and most importantly, give me a strong competitive mentality. Every time I compete, many Nghe An brothers and sisters who have won medals at the ASEAN Para Games come to cheer me on. That source of encouragement has helped me overcome my anxiety and compete with all my might.

When standing on the highest podium to receive the medal, I burst into tears of infinite joy and promised myself that I would continue to strive to not let down everyone's love.

Along with Ho Thi Quynh Trang, Nghe An athletes also won 5 more Bronze medals, including: Nguyen Tien Ngoc (discus throw, shot put F37), Tran Ngoc Dung (Discus throw F42), Dau Thi Sau (Javelin throw F45) and Duong Van Du (100m run F42).

Trang and the above athletes all had a hard training process with the coaches of the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center before standing on the podium of glory.

Now, they have become as close as family members. On weekends, on the bustling walking street of Vinh city, many people recognized the special athlete Ho Thi Quynh Trang enthusiastically dancing to the vibrant Zumba.

Below the audience seats, there are also friends, brothers, sisters who accompanied Trang in the last tournament. They gave each other bright smiles to multiply the love for this life.
For many people, they are truly heroes when they overcome fate, fighting to win against their own limits./.