Interesting turning point of young female weightlifter Nghe An
Although she was not very passionate about sports and was an excellent student for many years, a turning point made Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai stick with weightlifting and become a promising athlete.
From a good student in Literature…
“Around April 2018, my class’s physical education teacher, Mr. Hau, took his students to compete in the Phu Dong Sports Festival at the district level. At that time, Mr. Hoang and Mr. Cuong came to recruit soldiers. They saw a girl in a class above me who had the right qualities for weightlifting, so they wanted to recruit her, but Mr. Hau said: “There is a girl at home who has a better physique than this girl, but she doesn’t compete in the sports festival.” The “girl” that Mr. Hau was referring to was me.
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After that, Mr. Hoang and Mr. Cuong came to my house, asked me to do long jump and push-up tests, and expressed their desire to recruit me to Vinh," Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai said about the circumstances of being selected to become a professional athlete.
The teacher Hau that Quynh Mai mentioned here is Mr. Nguyen Ba Hau - a Physical Education teacher at Dong Van Secondary School (Tan Ky), and Mr. Hoang and Mr. Cuong are coaches Vu Duc Hoang and Pham Ngoc Cuong of Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center. They are the people who discovered the qualities of the female athlete born in 2005 in Dong Van commune (Tan Ky). But the teachers at that time did not know that this 13-year-old girl, who was not very passionate about sports, was an excellent student for 6 consecutive years, and was very good at Literature, and was a member of the school's Literature team.
The story of a girl in a remote commune of Tan Ky district who is a good student probably comes from her family circumstances. Her parents divorced, her mother went to work as a factory worker in a far away province, Quynh Mai lived with her grandparents since she was little. Sympathizing with her grandparents' difficult family situation, Mai studied very hard and helped them with housework. Quynh Mai's love of reading and literature comes from the sensitive soul of a girl with an unfortunate family situation.
Seeing that his grandchild was sensitive and weak, when Quynh Mai was in 6th grade, her grandfather asked for her to attend a martial arts class in the commune. That was also the first sport that Quynh Mai practiced regularly, but only "twice a week for fun".
One special thing is that despite having a soul that is considered quite weak, having a difficult family situation, Quynh Mai has a contrasting body shape: short, plump, and solid. It is also because of this body shape that Quynh Mai has caught the attention of the coaches of Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center, because in weightlifting, short people have a great advantage because the weight path is shorter and lighter.
When seeing their granddaughter pass the tests, Quynh Mai's grandparents expressed their support for her to become a professional athlete to become independent early. But most of her teachers at Dong Van Secondary School were the opposite, advising their student not to pursue a difficult and uncertain athletic career. "The teachers also said that if girls lift weights a lot, they will be very muscular and will have difficulty getting married later. But after many days of hesitation and thinking, I followed Mr. Hoang and Mr. Cuong to Vinh so that my grandparents would not have to worry about raising me and would suffer less. At that time, I had just finished 7th grade, also with excellent student results," Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai shared.
Coming to Vinh City to train and live at the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center, like many other athletes, Quynh Mai faced difficulties when she had not yet adapted to the new life, homesickness and confusion with the different training regimen. However, thanks to the dedicated instruction of the coaches and the help of senior athletes, Quynh Mai gradually learned the techniques from basic to advanced, completing the exercises well.
“Before, I thought weightlifting was one of the easy sports to practice, you just need to have good physical condition. But after practicing, I realized that this sport is very difficult, not everyone who is big and strong can practice it, you have to learn techniques, it looks simple but is not easy to apply at all. In particular, at first, I was allergic to iron, every time I put the weights on my neck, I got itchy rashes, especially with old rusty weights. After a while of trying to endure, I got used to it, and then the old weights were replaced with new ones so I no longer had allergies...
Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai - Weightlifter at Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center.
…to the talented young female weightlifter
In April 2019, Quynh Mai competed in her first tournament, the National Youth Weightlifting Championship held in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province, and won 2 Silver Medals. A year later, at the same tournament held in Hanoi, the young athlete from Tan Ky won 3 Silver Medals.
With good qualities and diligent training, Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai's performance in the 71kg weight class has been increasingly improved. In 2021, the first Gold Medal came to Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai at the National Youth Weightlifting Championship held in Kien Giang province.
In 2022, Quynh Mai competed in a higher level tournament, the National Youth Weightlifting Championship held in Bac Lieu province, and won 3 Silver Medals. In the same year, this female athlete also participated in the National Club Weightlifting Championship, winning 1 Silver Medal and 1 Bronze Medal.
From 2023 to now has been a successful period for Quynh Mai when she won 2 Gold Medals in the snatch event with a score of 84kg, total lift with a score of 185kg, Silver Medal in the clean and jerk event at the 2023 National Youth Weightlifting Championship held in Da Nang city.
At the 2024 National Youth Weightlifting Championship held in An Giang province from June 17 to 21, this female weightlifter won 2 Gold Medals in the snatch with a score of 81kg, total lift with a score of 184kg and a Silver Medal in the clean and jerk. These achievements helped Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai be called up to the National Youth Team to train in preparation for the 2024 World Youth Weightlifting Championship taking place in September in Spain.
Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai said that the “senior” she admires the most is Pham Thi Hong Thanh - a female weightlifter who has won many high achievements domestically and internationally. “Looking at her gives me more motivation to try harder, to improve myself more and more, and to achieve two immediate goals this year: winning medals at the 2024 National Weightlifting Championship and the 2024 World Youth Weightlifting Championship,” Quynh Mai confided.
Not only is she a talented weightlifter, since moving to Vinh city and embarking on a professional sports career, Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai has also been a diligent and exemplary student at Nghe An High School for the Gifted in Sports, holding the position of class monitor for many years, and has been described by teachers and friends as a sociable person who always cares and helps those around her. She is currently a first-year student in the Faculty of Physical Education at Bac Ninh University of Sports. I believe that although the road ahead is full of challenges, Quynh Mai will continue to persevere and strive to be more successful in her sports career.