Shortening road to Olympics
Hai Phong's elite sports sector is poised for transformation, with a focus on targeted investment, expanded resources and ambitions to compete on the world's biggest stages.
Six years of waiting
Looking back at the history of local sports, including both Hai Phong and Hai Duong before their merger, athletes from the two localities made a total of seven Olympic appearances. These are proud milestones, but they also show that qualifying for the Olympics remains an exceptionally demanding challenge.
The first milestone came when rapid-fire pistol shooter Nguyen Duc Uynh competed at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Weightlifter Nguyen Thi Thiet then competed at two consecutive Olympic Games, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
Phan Thi Ha Thanh made her mark by qualifying for the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. She also became the first Vietnamese artistic gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships in 2011, before claiming gold at the 2012 Asian Championships.
Shooter Tran Quoc Cuong also competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 50-m pistol event.
Most recently, Hai Phong took pride in seeing archer Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This marked the first time a Vietnamese archer had competed at the Olympic Games.
Since Tokyo 2020, Hai Phong has had no further athletes officially compete at the Olympics. This six-year gap highlights the extraordinary challenge of qualifying for the world's biggest sporting event, even as the city develops athletes across multiple Olympic sports and expands its investment resources.
Resolution No. 12-NQ/TU of the Standing Board of the Hai Phong Party Committee on sports development through 2030, with a vision to 2045, incorporates Olympic participation into the city's long-term strategy.
Rowing aims to consolidate its position as the country's leading discipline, with athletes targeting Asian Games medals and Olympic qualification. Shooting aims to win Asian Games gold and secure Olympic berths. By 2045, the city hopes to have athletes win medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships.
More than resources are needed
Building an athlete capable of reaching the Olympics requires more than a strong local sports foundation. Hai Phong archery coach Nguyen Xuan Thanh, who directly coached Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu on his journey to the Olympics, believes the process requires a combination of natural talent, sacrifice, financial resources and a well-structured training pathway spanning many years.
Hai Phong currently has training systems in several Olympic sports, including swimming, rowing, archery, shooting, weightlifting, athletics, badminton, fencing and table tennis.
Following the merger with Hai Duong, the city's pool of sporting talent has expanded considerably, creating an advantage in identifying athletes with the potential to excel internationally.
According to Pham Thi To Trang, Deputy Director of the City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, getting athletes to the Olympics is a goal and a priority for the city's sports sector. To achieve this, the sector will focus on specialized training in five leading sports, 10 priority sports and others.
“We plan to develop a program to recruit domestic and foreign experts, step up training camps and international competitions, and apply science and technology and sports medicine to athlete selection, coaching and care. These efforts will help realize our goal of having more elite Hai Phong athletes compete at the Olympics in the coming years,” Trang added.
Six years after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Hai Phong's sports sector now has more reasons to hope for a new generation of competitors.
TIEN HUY