MC Diep Chi speaks out about the 2020 Olympia female champion

Thu Hang became the first female Olympia Champion in 9 years.

Specifically, when she won, Thu Hang “celebrated” by pointing to the sky. Before that, the 10x female student expressed her excessive joy when her opponent Tri Dung shared that she chose a safe question package in the Finish Line round because she could not reach the laurel wreath.

A group of netizens criticized Thu Hang for being too competitive, overconfident, and having a bad attitude. In the face of this "wave" of criticism, many people spoke up to defend the new Olympia Champion, including stars and influencers on the online community such as Chau Bui, vlogger Giang Oi, Toc Tien... Most recently,MC Diep Chi– who has been involved with “Road to Olympia” this year and many previous seasons – expressed his personal opinion with a long “letter” on his personal page, along with a “quickly taken” photo with Thu Hang.

Thu Hang was "stoned" for her attitude in the final round of the Road to Olympia.

At the beginning, Diep Chi revealed that the reason Thu Hang did not interact with the camera was because she was busy chatting with runner-up Quoc Anh. She emphasized that after the competition on television, the students were happy and laughing together as if nothing had happened. Moreover, the female student from Ninh Binh in the photos taken with the other 3 contestants did not wear a laurel wreath. "Olympia is like that. One minute they can be opponents fighting for every point, the next minute they are patting each other on the shoulder and saying "you, me"," the female MC from Nghe An shared.

As the host, Diep Chi and MC Ngoc Huy encouraged the contestants to be comfortable and relaxed during the competition. “If you are sad, just cry, if you are happy, just laugh, if you are thirsty, just ask for a drink on TV, it's okay. If you find it hard to think while standing, just sit on the floor and calculate the answer, or lie down, like Hoang - Truong Ams (Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted) recently. Some people answered the questions leisurely and calmly, while others ate loudly, spoke loudly, and answered as if "scold" the MC. I just tried to hold back my laughter while reading the questions, but I never felt disrespected. After the competition, I still said yes ma'am once, yes ma'am twice, there's nothing to think about. You guys are still very young, so we never rely on ourselves as adults to judge. If you remind us, just say something softly and everything will be fine,” Diep Chi alluded to the negative comments about Thu Hang in recent days.

A "quickly taken" photo of Diep Chi and Thu Hang. Photo: FBNV

According to Diep Chi, Olympia has always proactively created a comfortable, close, and familiar atmosphere over the years to encourage young people to "just be themselves". What the program's crew wants is to have diverse players with diverse personalities that leave a strong impression on the audience. Thanks to that, viewers no longer have to listen to mechanical statements like "I come here to exchange and learn". Instead, contestants freely express their strong desires and clearly define their goals such as "I will compete with all my heart", "I compete to win the laurel wreath for the school, for my family, for myself"...

The female MC born in 1986 further emphasized that the contestants coming to “Road to Olympia” have to endure a lot of pressure such as questions containing a vast amount of knowledge, time limits, facing excellent players, and carrying the expectations from family, school, etc.

“Just concentrating on the competition is already exhausting, how can I think about difficult questions, and how to appear graceful and polite, with gentle gestures and words, to please my teammates and the audience? Then I’ll just go to the student elegance contest…

Only seventeen years old, only 7 years older than our Sumo. Feeling happy, just happy, no time to think about anything. But it was worth being happy, winning the finals of the year. If you don't watch Olympia, then there's no need to discuss it, but if you watch it regularly, you will understand that this championship is really great... If Hang wasn't decisive, strong, spontaneous, and instinctive like that, the laurel wreath this year would not have belonged to her. The bell-ringing to score 80 points in the "Overcoming Obstacles" competition was also mostly spontaneous. The decision was made in a split second, at that moment no one had time to think much", Diep Chi confided.

For Diep Chi, being sensitive in behavior requires a lot of experience in life. She admits that even though she is in her 40s, she still sometimes acts clumsy, so don't be too harsh on a minor girl.

“You guys of the same age should try to put yourself in that girl’s shoes to feel. Remember when you felt most proud of yourself, how you behaved at that time? As for adults with many lessons and experiences, having also been young, you should understand that the emotions of youth are extremely precious. Especially in the happiest moments of life like that. If you are strict, difficult to remind, give advice, the girl will accept it. But instead, you “throw stones” at the council, using harsh words, in my opinion, it is very uncivilized and very cruel,” Diep Chi advised.

According to Diep Chi, she originally did not intend to speak up, but changed her mind because she realized she needed to take responsibility for protecting the "little girl" Thu Hang so that in the future, the Ninh Binh female student would still dare to "give it her all", not be afraid of being judged or pay too much attention to unconstructive gossip.

“With her inherent courage and resilience, I believe Hang will soon overcome this to continue pursuing her cherished dream. What she needs to learn has already been learned. Mr. Tran Lap once wrote, “Every path is paved with roses. The feet also feel pain because of the thorns...” Every success has a bit of bitterness. Your job is to savor it to know the taste, and then, hold your head high and keep going,” Diep Chi wrote the last words of her “heartfelt letter” to the first female Olympia Champion in 9 years.

Nguyen Diep Chi was born in 1986 in Vinh city, Nghe An. She is an editor of Vietnam Television (VTV), loved through TV programs such as "Ring the Golden Bell", "7th Wish", "Road to Olympia"... In 2007, Diep Chi first appeared in Olympia as an MC at Nghe An. 10 years later, she was the main host of the program and has been with the program until now.