Disabled female athlete from Nghe An once broke the world record

“Gold harvester” of Vietnam's disabled sports

Born in 1985, the youngest of six children in Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen), Nguyen Thi Hai suffered a major accident at a very young age that left her disabled. A severe polio attack at the age of three left her legs atrophied and she could never walk like a normal person again.

However, Hai always longed to go to school and integrate with her peers. Understanding her wishes, despite the family's difficult circumstances, Hai's parents still tried to send their disabled daughter to school.

In mid-2003, after Nguyen Thi Hai graduated from high school, a difficult "problem" was posed to Hai: her family's finances were too tight, her parents were in poor health, her siblings were also having difficulty making a living, so she had no support and had to find a way to be independent. Meanwhile, in her hometown, people with disabilities like her had a hard time finding suitable jobs. After much thought and research, Hai decided to "go South" to Ho Chi Minh City - where she knew there would be more opportunities than in her hometown.

In the city named after Uncle Ho, Nguyen Thi Hai went to a charity home in Binh Thanh district - a place that provides vocational training and jobs for girls and women with disabilities. “When I came here, I saw many women with more severe disabilities than me. That was when I realized that I was luckier than many others. So I promised myself that I would strive and try to prove that even though I was disabled, I could do the things that normal people could do,” Nguyen Thi Hai recounted.

Through vocational training and job creation, Nguyen Thi Hai feels more and more confident, and her health is getting better and better. And although her legs cannot walk normally, thanks to her good health and physique, at the end of 2004, she was introduced to the athletics coach Dang Van Phuc who was then recruiting athletes for the Ho Chi Minh City disabled sports team.

During a weightlifting test, she surprised everyone with her outstanding performance compared to other athletes who had trained before. Hai was immediately added to the city's disabled sports team to train and prepare for national competitions.

In July 2005, the National Sports Tournament for the Disabled was held in Hanoi. Nguyen Thi Hai participated in 3 events: shot put, javelin throw, discus throw and won 2 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and was then selected to the Vietnam Disabled Athletics Team to attend the Southeast Asian Para Games (ASEA Para Games) held in Manila, Philippines.

At this tournament, Nguyen Thi Hai won 3 Gold Medals in 3 events: javelin throw, discus throw, and shot put, an achievement that helped her to be awarded the Third Class Labor Medal.

Since then, Nguyen Thi Hai has become a leading “gold harvester” of Vietnamese disabled sports. In 18 years of competing in domestic and international arenas, this athlete from Nghe An has won 24 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal at the ASEAN Para Games, most notably at the 2014 ASEAN Para Games, where she broke the world record in javelin throw with a score of 24.88m.

At the Asia-Pacific regional competitions, in 2006, she won a Silver Medal in the discus throw and a Bronze Medal in the shot put. In 2015, just returning to competition after giving birth to her first daughter for more than 6 months, Hai won a Silver Medal at the Asian Para Games in Singapore. In 2018, when the tournament took place in Indonesia, she won a Bronze Medal in the discus throw.

“The tournament that I remember most, even though I didn’t win a medal, was the Paralympics held in London, England. In my early days of sports, I dreamed of one day participating in an Olympics for people with disabilities. At that time, it was just a dream, but in 2012 it became a reality.

It was also the first time I set foot in a European country, competing with disabled athletes from all over the world. Later, in 2021, I had another Paralympic Games in Tokyo, but the tournament in London was still the most special tournament in my life.

Athlete Nguyen Thi Hai

Happy home

Nguyen Thi Hai believes that the success she has achieved in sports to this day is thanks to the motivation from her family: “In my family, I am the only one who finished high school, my brothers and sisters all had to drop out of school so that I could go to school. When I was still in school, my brothers and sisters all volunteered, even fought with each other to have someone to take care of me every day, then take me to and from school.

That's why, every time I encounter difficulties or get discouraged in life and my sports career, I think about my family and loved ones back home, and tell myself not to give up, to persevere in any situation."

Not only motivated by his family in his hometown Nghe An, love and a new home in the Southern land also gave Hai the strength to overcome himself, gain many impressive achievements in his sports career as well as overcome difficulties in life.

During her first years at the charity home in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Thi Hai met Cao Ngoc Hung (born in 1990), also a disabled person, from Tuyen Hoa district, Quang Binh province. Although they were "sisters" with a 5-year age gap, their passion for sports brought them closer together. For 10 years, from 2004 to 2014, they were both sisters and teammates, practicing together in their three strengths: javelin throw, discus throw, shot put, and competing together in many international competitions.

At the end of 2014, Nguyen Thi Hai and Cao Ngoc Hung got married, becoming the golden couple in the Vietnamese disabled sports community. Fate arranged for them not to have perfect bodies, but to make up for it was extraordinary willpower. After officially starting a family, the couple's main job was running a restaurant.

With a degree in Pharmacy, Nguyen Thi Hai also tries to earn extra income by selling cosmetics online. But they still maintain sports training to participate in domestic and international tournaments, winning medals to have bonuses to cover their living expenses. When Cao Ngoc Hung sits on a chair, throws a javelin or pushes a barbell, she is the one who collects the equipment and vice versa. When giving birth to her first child, Nguyen Thi Hai stopped training, stayed at home to help her husband pursue his career and the result was Cao Ngoc Hung's historic Bronze Medal in javelin throw at the 2016 Paralympics.

By 2020, the life of the disabled athlete couple became less difficult when they received athlete salaries. It should be noted that, among many disabled athletes, very few have regular salaries, only for special cases and high achievements. Also in 2020, Nguyen Thi Hai was included in the list of 20 inspirational Vietnamese women voted by Forbes Vietnam Magazine. Currently, the couple Hung - Hai have two healthy and obedient daughters together.

Nguyen Thi Hai said that after more than 18 years of being involved in sports for the disabled, with many difficulties, hardships and glories, what remains for her is the passion that has seeped into her blood and flesh, because it is sports that has helped her confidently integrate into life, contribute to changing lives and confidently inspire those in less fortunate circumstances. Currently, Nguyen Thi Hai is working hard to practice and maintain stable performance to get a place at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in France./.