Lacking world-class stars, Vietnamese sports find it difficult to dream of Olympic medals

After nearly 2 weeks of competition at the 2024 Olympics, the Vietnamese sports delegation has not won any medals. After the historic achievement of shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh (1 gold medal, 1 silver medal) in 2016, Vietnamese sports have gone through 2 consecutive Olympics empty-handed.

During the same period, Vietnam topped the SEA Games medal rankings for two consecutive times. Why is there such a contrast?

There are no world class athletes

The gold medals won by Vietnamese sports at the SEA Games are worthless when competing at the Olympic level. That is the truth. Vietnam has many of the highest-class athletes in Southeast Asia, but compared to the world level, they are still far behind, or the Olympics do not have those sports.

The Vietnamese sports delegation participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics has 16 athletes. However, only 1 of them is in the world top 10 in the corresponding event.

Trinh Van Vinh was the only exception. He ranked 6th in the world in the men's 61 kg weightlifting category. However, Trinh Van Vinh could not lift the registered weight of 128 kg in 3 snatches and was soon eliminated. This result was not surprising, because in 6 times lifting this weight at the Asian Championship and ASIAD last year, the athlete born in 1995 was only successful once.

It is hard to blame Trinh Van Vinh, as this athlete has just returned to compete in international tournaments since May 2023 after serving a ban for doping. When the Vietnamese sports delegation set out for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vinh still had to take painkillers due to the effects of his injury.

The only athlete in the world's top 10 who has no chance of winning a medal. Trinh Van Vinh's teammates can only hope for a miracle. That almost happened in the case of Trinh Thu Vinh in shooting, but in the end, this female shooter, despite her strong performance, still did not win a medal.

Hoang Thi Tinh is the opening act for the Vietnamese sports delegation at the Paris Olympics. In Southeast Asia, the Thanh Hoa native has almost no rivals in the 48 kg judo category.

In her first participation in the largest sports event in Southeast Asia in 2019, Hoang Thi Tinh won a gold medal in kurash. At the 31st and 32nd SEA Games, Hoang Thi Tinh won a gold medal in the 48 kg category in judo.

However, in a world-class arena like the Olympics, she left the tournament after only 5 minutes on the same field with Oumaima Bedioui (Tunisia). In fact, although Hoang Thi Tinh is the best female judo fighter (48 kg) in Southeast Asia, she is only ranked 98th in the IJF (International Judo Federation) rankings.

Nguyen Thuy Linh – the best female tennis player in Vietnam – won only 1 match in Paris, before losing to Zhang Beiwen in the 2nd match. If she overcomes her American opponent, Thuy Linh will immediately face Marin Carolina (world No. 3) in the next round. Nguyen Thuy Linh’s chance of winning a medal has been almost non-existent since the organizers drew lots to divide the brackets.

Despite high expectations before the Olympics, Nguyen Thuy Linh is not actually the best player in Southeast Asia. The highest ranking Thuy Linh has ever achieved on the BWF (Badminton World Federation) rankings is 16th. After the Olympics, she dropped to 24th, currently ranked below 7 other players in Southeast Asia.

Similarly, Le Duc Phat (badminton), Do Thi Anh Nguyet (archery)... can achieve very good performance and parameters compared to themselves but are still far behind the world's top competitors.

Athletes who enter the Olympics with wildcards have almost zero chance of winning a medal.

Differences between Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines

In contrast to Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines possess the best athletes in the world in their sports.

Tokyo 2021 was not a successful Olympics for Thailand, but they still managed to win an Olympic gold medal in taekwondo thanks to Panipak Wongpattanakit.

At Paris 2024, she successfully defended her Olympic taekwondo 49 kg championship, on her 27th birthday. Panipak Wongpattanakit announced her retirement when she was the world's number 1 taekwondo fighter.

The Thais focus on boxing, weightlifting and martial arts. Before 2024, they had won 35 medals at the Olympics since 1976, but only in those three sports.

Specifically, boxing won 15 medals, weightlifting won 14 medals and taekwondo won 6 medals. From 1996 to 2024, Thailand won gold medals at all Olympics, except 2012.

Badminton is also a strong sport for Thailand. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, they have former world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn reaching the men's singles final.

Like Thailand, the Philippines also focuses on boxing. Although it has not won as many Olympic medals as the Golden Temple country in this sport, boxing still brings in a steady stream of medals for the Philippines. By 2024, the Philippines had won 14 Olympic medals, 8 of which came from boxing.

Gymnastics is not a traditional strength of the Philippines. However, at this stage they have a star in Carlos Yulo. This athlete has been a world champion since 2019.

Obviously, looking at the list of athletes and their positions on the world rankings, the delegations of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines can calculate the possibility of competing for medals. Meanwhile, Vietnamese sports must wait for a miracle.