History is motivation
Historically, the Vietnamese weightlifting team won its first Silver Medal at ASIAD in 2006 in the men's 56kg weight class (lifter Hoang Anh Tuan). Then, won a Silver Medal at ASIAD in 2014 (lifter Thach Kim Tuan, men's 56kg) and 2 Silver Medals at ASIAD in 2018 (Thach Kim Tuan, men's 56kg; Trinh Van Vinh, men's 62kg).
The silver medal at ASIAD is assessed by experts as a performance that meets the ability of Vietnamese weightlifters. Because in fact, Vietnamese weightlifters have enough opportunities to compete for medals in some suitable weight classes. However, this is a weight class group with many of the world's leading weightlifters from China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia competing.
General Secretary of the Vietnam Weightlifting & Fitness Federation - Mr. Do Dinh Khang once analyzed: "Vietnamese weightlifting has built many professional programs through previous training and competition cycles. However, it must be seen that the competition at ASIAD is still very specific.
All the best athletes in Asia participate in competition here, so the opportunity to compete for Gold Medals is never easy. Vietnamese athletes have won medals at ASIAD but must also recognize specific professional realities to determine specialized investment.
Key investments by content
The program "Developing key sports to prepare for participation in ASIAD, Olympics in the 2026-2045 period" approved from May 7, 2026 has identified 9 sports that will build focused and key investment resources. Weightlifting is one of them.
In the opinion poll at the Workshop on building content for Developing key sports to prepare for ASIAD and Olympics in the period 2026 - 2045 held in 2025, with weightlifting, the manager said that this is a top priority sport. In each training and professional preparation cycle, the Vietnamese weightlifting team must prepare a force of 10-12 key athletes as the core to determine the task of competing for ASIAD medals.
Key sports preparing to participate in ASIAD and Olympics will be prepared in 3 cycles including: 2026 - 2030, 2031 - 2035 and 2036 - 2045. Weightlifting will be prepared according to the above investment cycles. The difficulty of weightlifting lies in the stability of content in Asia and the world to prepare for investment.
In the past 20 years, Vietnamese weightlifting has focused on professional development in the men's 56kg event. This is an event that helped Vietnamese weightlifting win a Silver Medal at the 2008 Olympics and a Bronze Medal at the 2012 Olympics and also a Silver Medal at the ASIAD.
However, from 2020, the men's 56kg weight class is no longer organized at ASIAD and Olympic level tournaments. The men's 61kg weight class is the smallest weight class for men to be officially included in competition at the above international Games. And now, the men's 61kg weight class is also not organized.
From the first time the Vietnamese weightlifting team won a medal at ASIAD (in 2006), at this time, ASIAD 20 taking place this year continues to change to a new weight class. The Asian Weightlifting Federation will compete in the 60kg, 65kg, 70kg, 75kg, 85kg, 95kg, 110kg, over 110kg events for men and 8 women's weight classes: 49kg, 53kg, 57kg, 61kg, 69kg, 77kg, 86kg and over 86kg at ASIAD 20.
From this year, the weightlifting team has hired a Chinese expert, Mr. Li Shunzhu (former head coach of the Chinese women's weightlifting team) to come to Vietnam to work. The professional program is built by experts for athletes to practice and evaluate according to each cycle, especially the 2026-2030 period to lay a foundation for continued development behind instead of spreading out. The first result of the Vietnamese weightlifting team at the 2026 Asian Championships won 2 Silver Medals, 6 Bronze Medals.
