Vietnam Sports from the 2024 Olympics: Red Alert on Decline

Unpointed

Vietnamese sports have failed to appear on the medal tally at the 2004, 2021 and 2024 Olympics in the 7 games that have taken place. Being empty-handed in the world's largest arena is not a disaster, but what worries everyone is the decline in competitiveness in the strong or spearhead sports that have achieved good results in shooting, weightlifting and Taekwondo.

The results of the recent competition in Paris, except for a little regret for Trinh Thu Vinh in the women's 10m air pistol event when she was close to the medal position but failed. The rest of the results of the competition were mostly unsurprising as the gap in skill level between the Vietnamese players and their opponents was too large and could not be bridged.

8 years ago, shooting created the most successful Olympic Games in the history of Vietnamese Sports (up to now), but after Hoang Xuan Vinh, there is a gap in the next force with stable capacity and courage to shoulder the responsibility in the world arena. The momentum created since 2016 is not enough to become the driving force for the development of the whole sport and in the last 2 Games, shooting could not bring home medals at the Olympics.

Similarly in weightlifting, the silver medal of Hoang Anh Tuan (2008), then the bronze medal of Tran Le Quoc Toan (2012) confirmed that the smallest weight class in the Olympic competition is the spearhead of Vietnamese Sports. However, since then, there has not been a weightlifter capable of competing for a medal in the 61kg class (replacing the 56kg class).

Vietnamese weightlifters have failed in the last 3 Games and the number of athletes winning places has also decreased. Trinh Van Vinh has made an effort to overcome injury and age to return, but that is not enough to make the hope of winning a medal become a reality, in the context of the level of opponents having higher achievements or improving day by day.

Or like Taekwondo, the martial art that brought the first medal to Vietnamese Sports at the Olympics, but up to now it has been declining. Vietnamese Taekwondo failed to win a ticket to the 2024 Olympics and was absent from the Olympics for the second time (the first time was in 2016).

The decline in competitiveness in key sports has made the chance of winning an Olympic medal slim. Meanwhile, in sports based on strength, speed and endurance such as swimming, athletics, cycling, rowing, canoeing, Vietnamese athletes are still having difficulty finding achievements in the continent, let alone reaching the world.

The same is true for sports that are technical, skilled, and highly difficult, such as badminton, shooting, and archery. The effort is recognized through the official tickets that the athletes have worked hard to win through a long journey in the qualifying round, but reaching the Olympic medal is a completely different story.

Although the recent competition results are sad, it is important to understand that this is what Vietnamese Sports must or will receive based on their own strength. 3 years ago, Vietnamese Sports failed to win a medal in Tokyo and is now absent from the overall rankings in Paris, first of all reflecting that the preparation has not met the requirements of having athletes capable of winning medals.

Restart from the focus list

The 16 athletes who went to Paris (14 official spots, 2 special spots) in 11 sports of Vietnam Sports are the result of a key investment process in a plan to connect 16 sports from SEA Games to ASIAD and crystallize into the Olympics. This is also the way the sports industry has been doing for many years and in fact there was a time of success through winning 6 Olympic medals in 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

However, as mentioned above, the loss of Vietnamese sports' spearhead has caused a decline in medal competitiveness, inconsistent Olympic achievements, and the risk of empty-handedness is always present. This is also reflected in the number of athletes who have officially won tickets since the last two games. From 23 athletes in 2016, there are 18 athletes in the 2021 games and 16 athletes in 2024.

The difficulties on the journey to conquer the big arena were also predicted right after the 19th ASIAD ended 7 months ago, when Vietnamese Sports ranked behind Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore despite having just led the region in the last 2 SEA Games. Of which, failure and not achieving high results in many sports and events that were invested in were the leading causes.

"From the results of the 2024 Olympics, there needs to be a review and overall re-evaluation of the list of key investments so that Vietnamese sports can achieve high results in major arenas such as the continent and the world. Investment in which sport, what content and specifically for whom, must be clearly defined," said former Deputy Director of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Tran Duc Phan.

Looking at the results of countries in the Southeast Asian region, winning medals at the 2024 Olympics also depends on a very limited number of athletes but are invested in and honed to become spearheads. Typically, Carlos Yulo won 2 gold medals in gymnastics (the vault and freestyle) for the Philippines.

Or like Panipak Wongpattanakit (Thailand) has become "unrivaled" in the 49kg category of Taekwondo with 2 gold medals in the last 2 Olympics. In addition, Indonesia won the first gold medal in the 73kg category with 19-year-old weightlifter Rizki Juniansyah but also in the sport that has been strong for many years: weightlifting. Despite being at a disadvantage, Malaysia still won 2 bronze medals in badminton, which is its forte.

For Vietnamese Sports, the list of key investments with 16 sports for the ASIAD and Olympics over the past many years has come to a point where it needs to be reviewed. Certainly, there must be a "key of the key", otherwise it will create dispersion, not bring about the desired results and waste the already limited resources. In particular, the failure to win medals in 2 consecutive Olympics is a concrete proof.

In the context of the ability to socialize and attract funding sources in most sports not being effective, the investment from the State is only at a moderate level and comparing strengths and weaknesses with world sports, Vietnamese Sports needs to recalculate, choose suitable people and content to become the spearhead to rekindle the hope of winning medals at the Olympics taking place in the next 4 years.