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At 15, Hai Phong-born player Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen has emerged as a name attracting attention in top-level Vietnamese badminton with an impressive string of achievements.
Building records from a very young age
At the 9th Hai Duong Provincial Sports Festival in 2022, spectators were surprised when the women's singles title went to an 11-year-old girl. She was Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen.
Notably, Thu Huyen's defeated opponent was her own mother, player Dinh Thi Tuoi.
Before winning the title, Huyen had already won a bronze medal at the Hai Duong Youth and Children's Badminton Championships when she was just 5 years old.
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At the age of 9, Huyen was called up to the national team. In 2020, she won two gold medals in the women's singles and women's doubles events at the National Youth and Children's Badminton Championships.
Nguyen Ngoc Tri, Thu Huyen's first coach, described her as a special case. Despite her young age, Huyen already had good endurance and was able to handle the training workload well. Her technical and tactical thinking also developed at an early age.
Stepping onto the big stage, writing a new chapter for Vietnamese badminton
After competing for Hai Duong, Thu Huyen moved to Dong Nai. This was an important turning point, giving the young player an opportunity to receive more specialized training.
At domestic youth tournaments, Thu Huyen consistently established her position over many years. But her most notable milestone came on the international stage.
At the 2024 Asian U15 Junior Championships, Thu Huyen became the first Vietnamese player to reach the final of a continental-level tournament in the girls' singles event. She won the silver medal, demonstrating her ability to compete with the continent's leading young players.
Not stopping there, Thu Huyen continued to attract attention at professional-level international tournaments. At the end of 2025, at the Bangladesh International Challenge and Bangladesh International Series, the young Hai Phong player faced seeds who were much more experienced than her in terms of age. Notably, Huyen defeated Malaysia's No. 4 seed Joanne Ng, who was eight years older and had a much higher BWF ranking. This achievement became one of the clearest affirmations of Thu Huyen's ability as she stepped onto the bigger stage.
The door to the Youth Olympics also opened for the Hai Phong-born player. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Vietnamese badminton an official quota place in the women's singles event at the 2026 Youth Olympics. The Vietnam Badminton Federation and the national team's coaching staff registered Thu Huyen to compete. This is the first time a Hai Phong badminton player has reached the Youth Olympic stage.
In the women's singles world rankings updated by the BWF on August 25, 2026, Thu Huyen climbed 17 places to No. 269. She became the fourth-highest-ranked Vietnamese female player, after Nguyen Thuy Linh, Vu Thi Trang and Bui Bich Phuong.
At 15, that ranking is not yet the destination, but what Thu Huyen has achieved shows that the young player is progressing rapidly on her journey to becoming one of the most notable faces in Vietnamese badminton.
TIEN HUY
