Tet away from home and the running of athletes

Not all athletes are lucky enough to celebrate Tet with their families. Because of their achievements and goals, they have to leave their hometowns and celebrate Tet in foreign countries during training and competitions.

The arrival of the Year of the Dragon also coincides with the 26th SEA Games ending with great success. Thanks to that, the athletes had a joyful and happy Tet.

Warm Tet thanks to bonuses

According to the reward levels applied by the Government at the SEA Games: 45 million VND for gold medals, 25 million VND for silver medals and 20 million VND for bronze medals, and 15 million VND for each record achieved, with the achievement of 96 gold medals, 92 silver medals and 100 bronze medals, Vietnamese athletes had a bumper season.

The total prize money for athletes has reached over 9 billion VND, not including the bonuses from sponsors. Thanks to that, athletes who win many medals will "get rich". Like "doll" Ngan Thuong of the Gymnastics team, thanks to her achievements of winning 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal, she has received over 100 million VND in prize money, not including the amount from the Hanoi locality.

This year is a rare Tet that Ngan Thuong can reunite with her family. Thuong said that after returning from the Olympic qualifying round, she will continue to practice until near Tet and then celebrate New Year's Eve with her lover. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Thuong and her team will practice again because with the nature of this sport, just a few days of partying will make you gain weight immediately.

If not busy training or competing, most Vietnamese athletes just want to be with their families, because they have been away all year. Olympic Judo athlete Van Ngoc Tu said that for Tet she just wants to go home to be with her parents and siblings because she has been "away all year, not seeing them, missing them so much." It is expected that Tu "Dua" will celebrate Tet in Ben Tre for a few days before leaving for China for training in mid-February.

Youth Olympic champion Thach Kim Tuan also revealed that this year he will stay home to celebrate Tet with his siblings and grandchildren. In 2011, Tuan competed quite successfully, and gave all the large prize money he received to his sister to save for Tet shopping.

Celebrate Tet with your new home

With the gold medal in high jump at the 26th SEA Games, athlete Duong Thi Viet Anh was awarded a large sum of money up to 170 million VND from the industry and Bac Lieu province. Holding in her hand an unprecedented amount of money, Viet Anh said she will use it to build her parents a spacious house as planned a few years ago. Viet Anh is the youngest child in a poor farming family in Bac Lieu, so the bonus has helped her a lot. This year, Viet Anh will not celebrate Tet in her hometown but will train with the athletics team. Therefore, she quickly urged her parents to build a new house to have a happy Tet.

Sharing the joy with Viet Anh is female athlete Nguyen Thi My Linh. Thanks to the large bonus for 2 gold medals at the Asian and World Championships, My Linh received a bonus of up to nearly 400 million VND, helping her save up to buy a cheap apartment, avoiding having to "rent" for nearly ten years now.

Although swimmer Nguyen Huu Viet did not have a successful SEA Games, he was greatly consoled when the Hai Phong City People's Committee granted him 200 square meters of land as promised 4 years ago, along with a position in the industry's payroll. Now Huu Viet can retire with peace of mind as he has a stable job.

Tet holiday, running show

That is the case of bodybuilder Pham Van Mach. Highly appreciated by the public after the Perfect Couple program with Van Mai Huong, Mach was encouraged to pursue a singing career.

After starring in the Tet movie “Hello Miss Ba”, playing the role of a simple farmer, Mach currently has a packed schedule in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to his daily practice schedule, at night he is a regular guest of show organizers, singing at famous tea rooms. It is expected that during this Lunar New Year, Mach will have a tour in the northern provinces like a real singer. Mach also said that next year he plans to release his own debut album.

Celebrating Tet in a foreign land

Not all athletes are fortunate enough to celebrate Tet with their families. Because of their achievements and goals, they have to leave their hometowns and celebrate Tet in foreign countries during training and competitions. This year, chess player Le Quang Liem will compete throughout Tet. On New Year's Eve, he will go to England to compete in the Gibraltar Open Chess Tournament. After that, Liem will continue to compete in the Aeroflot Tournament in Russia, where he has the task of defending his championship title. Last year, Liem had to compete from the third day of Tet.

Athlete Nguyen Hoang Thien has almost no concept of Tet. Since his family invested in him to follow professional tennis 6 years ago, Thien has celebrated the traditional Tet in other countries. This year, he will celebrate Tet in Australia - where Thien will attend 2 tournaments from January 15 to 28. Talking about Tet, Thien just smiled: "I'm used to it, there's never been a real Tet." It is expected that his father will come to Australia in the days before Tet, bringing some cakes and jams from Vietnam so that Thien can enjoy a bit of the traditional Tet atmosphere.



Thien has no concept of celebrating Tet in Vietnam.

This year, the Vietnamese athletics team will not celebrate Tet at home, but will train at the centers to compete in the Asian Athletics Championship in China on the 16th of the lunar calendar, where top athletes like Viet Anh and Thanh Hang aim to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The same is true for the Vietnamese fencing team. They will go to Tianjin and Guangdong (China), another group will go to Korea to train to strive to win tickets to London this summer.

According to: Infonet