Vietnam Talent Development Fund awards scholarships to 12 national athletes

These are athletes with high achievements, winning national and international medals, currently training and practicing at the Ho Chi Minh City National Training Center. Each athlete will receive tuition support for the remaining years at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Physical Education and Sports. The total cost of the Vietnam Talent Development Fund's support this time is 600 million VND.

At the scholarship award ceremony for 12 athletes, Director of the Vietnam Talent Development Fund - Mr. Le Nguyen Hoa - said: "The Vietnam Talent Development Fund always seeks and creates conditions for talents in many different fields, including sports, to reduce worries in daily life to focus on competing fully to bring glory to the country".

“In coordination with the Board of Directors of the Ho Chi Minh City National Training Center, the Vietnam Talent Development Fund has decided to award scholarships to 12 athletes this time. These are all athletes with difficult circumstances but have strived to overcome themselves, both training and competing at the highest level, and trying to improve their education. We hope that with this scholarship, they will be empowered to persistently pursue their passion, compete well, achieve high results, and become the ‘bright gems’ of Vietnamese sports.”

As one of the 12 athletes receiving scholarships this time, the "owner" of the gold medal in fencing at the 2023 SEA Games, Hoang Nhat Nam confided: "My father is a delivery man but he is old so his income is not abundant. My mother has degenerative spine disease, cannot do heavy work, and mainly stays at home. I have to send most of my salary back to help my parents cover living expenses, so every time it is time to pay tuition, I have to run around and borrow everywhere.

To earn extra income, in addition to practice time, I also sell goods online every day. Although it is not much, only about 1-3 million VND/month, that amount of money helps me buy necessary items for daily life. Therefore, when I received the news that the Vietnam Talent Development Fund had approved and sponsored a scholarship for the remaining 3 years of university, I was extremely happy. The scholarship is a strong source of encouragement, helping me continue my studies and pursue bigger dreams."

Sharing the joy with Nhat Nam, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tran, a promising girl of the Vietnamese boxing community, was moved to tears as she held the board receiving a scholarship of 60 million VND, equivalent to tuition for 3 years of university, and shared: “My family has four people but I am the only economic pillar. The athlete's salary is not much but I still try to support my family and study at university to have a better foundation of professional knowledge, and that is also the gateway for me to become a coach when I am no longer old enough to compete. Although I really want to work part-time, because I am a national team athlete, I have a lot of training time, have to go to many places for training and competition, so I cannot arrange it.”

“To have enough 8 million VND for tuition fees each semester, I had to work hard to save for many months. There were times when I wanted to give up, but I was determined not to give up, to study and stay in the profession until the end. Therefore, I am very happy and grateful to receive a scholarship from the Fund. The scholarship is important, helping me a lot in my journey to pursue my sports career. I also want to send a message to athletes in difficult circumstances to try to practice to achieve good results in competitions, try to study hard to have the opportunity to receive scholarship support from the Vietnam Talent Development Fund like me,” Tran said.

In addition to awarding valuable scholarships, the Vietnam Talent Development Fund has previously sponsored nutrition courses for athletes training at the Ho Chi Minh City National Sports Training Center. The training sessions are all taught directly by experts from the Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Research Institute (NRI).

Through the course, athletes were equipped with more nutritional knowledge to choose the right food, thereby helping to improve their physical condition and compete more sublimely. Athletes also learned how to create a personal menu on Nuti Expert - a specialized software built by NRI so that they can "design" the most suitable nutritional menu for themselves.