Good stepping stone
For more than 2 years, Nguyen Thuy Hien has been a typical young face of the Vietnamese swimming team with many impressive achievements.
At the 2025 Southeast Asian Youth Championship, the female athlete born in 2009 won 7 gold medals in the 50m frog, 100m frog, 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly, women's 4x200m freestyle relay and men's and women's 4x200m freestyle. She also broke 4 age groups' records, thereby contributing to helping the Vietnamese youth swimming team lead the overall group.
Returning from Singapore, Thuy Hien continued to participate in the 2025 World Youth Swimming Championship in Romania. Although she has not achieved outstanding results (ranked 26th in the 50m freestyle event), she still maintains a stable performance in the country with many medals and 5 national short-term records.
At that time, the coaching staff assessed that this result was an important premise for the development of young athletes, especially when Thuy Hien was in the transition period from the youth group to the national team.
Most recently, at the 2025 national championship, Thuy Hien continued to compete at a breakthrough when winning many gold medals in the events of 50m freestyle, 100m women's frog, 50m women's frog and 100m freestyle...
At the age of 16, she is considered a bright face to inherit the achievements of her senior Nguyen Thi Anh Vien - who dominated the women's swimming competition in Southeast Asia for a decade.
Waiting for the breakthrough at the 33rd SEA Games
After finishing international competitions, Nguyen Thuy Hien is currently among the key athletes trained by the Vietnamese swimming team towards the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand.
Since the beginning of 2025, she has been closely followed by Brazilian expert - Gustavo Piza in each training session, especially in short-distance events, which is her strength. Periodic tests and strict requirements on starting and maintaining speed are helping Thuy Hien gradually improve her performance.
According to the analysis of the swimming department (Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports), Thuy Hien's professional achievements have increased significantly compared to two years ago.
At the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia, she was only 14 years old but won the bronze medal in the women's 100m freestyle with a time of 56 seconds 42. Currently, Thuy Hien's training achievement parameters show her ability to improve swimming time by 0.5 to 1 second. This is a sufficient distance to compete for medals in the regional arena.
Ms. Le Thanh Huyen - Head of Swimming Department of the Department of Physical Education and Sports said that the women's swimming forces of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia are preparing strongly, making the competition at the 33rd SEA Games predicted to be very fierce. However, if she maintains her form and mentality is stable, Thuy Hien can completely create surprises in some of her forte events such as 50m, 100m freestyle or 50m frog.
In addition to her expertise, Nguyen Thuy Hien is highly appreciated for her training spirit. Unlike many young athletes, she rarely appears on social media, spending most of her time practicing and learning culture.
The last time Vietnamese women's swimming won a gold medal at the SEA Games was in 2019 when Nguyen Thi Anh Vien was still competing. In the two recent conventions, the gold medals all came from male athletes. Therefore, the appearance of Thuy Hien brings hope for the women's swimming team to return to the highest podium.
Currently, Nguyen Thuy Hien is considered an important factor in the strategy of rejuvenating the Vietnamese swimming team. With a good professional foundation, serious training awareness and a stable competitive spirit, the 16-year-old girl will be a new hope, contributing to helping Vietnamese swimming affirm her position at the 33rd SEA Games.
