Taekwondo artist Tran Hieu Ngan who won a silver medal at Olympic 2000

VietNamNet Bridge – 2008 is a landmark year for Vietnamese sports because this year Vietnamese sportspeople will participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, their largest and most important arena. However, as the event is approaching, Vietnam has exposed its weakness in preparation.

Why will Vietnam attend the Olympics? When Vietnam can answer this question properly, it can define its goals and build its strategy for the planet’s largest sports competition.

Going back in time

In 1980, five years after the country’s unification, a 79-member sports delegation took part in the first international event for the country and it was the Olympics in Moscow. Around 35 athletes competed in just four sports and the most outstanding record of the team was a winning match by wrestler Phi Huu Tinh.

However, the presence of Vietnamese athletes at the Olympics in 1980 also marked Vietnam’s membership in the International Olympic Committee and its first participation in a modern Olympics.

Two years later, Vietnam took part in the Asian Games (ASIAD) and in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) nine years after that. The Olympics marks the first step in the world sports arena by Vietnamese sports though it is something very far for Vietnam.

The achievements of Vietnamese sports delegations at Olympic events is clear evidence. At the Olympics in Seoul in 1988, Vietnam had 10 athletes competing in five sports; seven sportsmen – three sports at Barcelona in 1992; six sportsmen – four sports at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

The “door” to the Olympics is narrow for Vietnam and Vietnamese athletes attend these events mainly by invitation, so it is understandable that they don’t set high records in Olympic competitions.

New development with Taekwondo

The change of Olympic rules has created new opportunities for Vietnam, specifically when Taekwondo was added as an official sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

For the first time, besides invitation cards for Vietnamese track-and-field athletes, shooters and swimmers, two Vietnamese Taekwondo artists, Tran Hieu Ngan and Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai, passed the qualifiers to enter the final round of the Olympics in 2000.

At that time, Taekwondo was a key sport of Vietnam in international playgrounds like ASIAD or SEA Games but nobody could imagine that this martial art would help Vietnam get its first Olympic medal. Tran Hieu Ngan entered the final match in women’s Taekwondo, 57kg category and earned a historic silver medal for Vietnam after 20 years of attending the Olympics.

However, four years later in Athens, though it sent Taewkondo artists, table-tennis, rowing, track-and-field, swimming, weigh-lifting, and canoeing athletes to the Olympics, Vietnam gained nothing.

What is the real target?

The Olympics is still a dream of Vietnamese sports and sport officials need to discuss more about the country’s goals in this arena.

Some say that regional playgrounds are the target of Vietnamese sports so the country should not invest much in the Olympics, which is still far from Vietnam’s ability.

Others say Vietnam should not “confine” itself to the SEA Games but should look to bigger playgrounds like the ASIAD and Olympics. The specific goal is gaining more tickets to the Olympics by the main door (passing the qualifier round, not being invited), which can help Vietnamese athletes get more experience. Vietnam can prove the development of its sports through the number of athletes entering the final rounds of Olympic competitions.

However, some experts say that it will be difficult and costly for Vietnam to have athletes of different sports at the Olympics so the country should invest in several sports only.

Secretary General of the Vietnam Taekwondo Federation Truong Ngoc De said that it is highly possible for Vietnamese Taekwondo to medal at the Olympics in Beijing.

So what are the specific goals of Vietnam at the Olympics? Besides trying to send as many sportsmen as it can to the Olympics, Vietnam should try to gain at least a medal.

Those are the goals, but how can they be realised?

M.Q