On the afternoon of August 8 (Vietnam time), the final athlete of the Vietnamese sports delegation at the 2024 Olympics, Nguyen Thi Huong, completed her competition in the C1 - 200m event in canoing. Like her teammates, Nguyen Thi Huong is not in the group that can compete for medals.
Nguyen Thi Huong finished with a result of 49 seconds in the qualifying round - the last in her round, and could only enter the quarter-finals of the qualifying group.
The Vietnamese sports delegation set off for France with the simple goal of "striving" for medals". 16 athletes in 11 events competed, compared to many other countries and territories, which is quite large. However, there are many but not many.
Almost only shooting, for shooter Trinh Thu Vinh, is the only expected factor. Reality proved that, when Thu Vinh entered the finals in both competitions.
Despite her efforts, the best result the 23-year-old shooter achieved was 4th place in the 10m air pistol event. In the 25m sports pistol event, Thu Vinh was eliminated early in the final.
There were times when Thu Vinh's shot brought hope, but basically, at the important moment, it required steadfastness, the Thanh Hoa shooter as well as most other Vietnamese athletes when they reached the top level, their mentality could not be maintained stable.
In cycling, some achievements of Nguyen Thi That in recent years have also made many people expect something at the 2024 Olympics. But in the end, when I went to the big playground, I saw that the gap was still very far away.
However, the fact that the 31-year-old crow is one of the few Asian athletes to complete the 158km race is encouraging.
In the competitions - even directly on the floor, on the other side of the net or in parallel, the gap in level is really too large. Hoang Thi Tinh in judo lost and was eliminated in the first match. Vo Thi Kim Anh is the same in boxing, a sport that Ha Thi Linh has a better advantage in, reaching the round of 16.
Nguyen Thuy Linh and Le Duc Phat won impressively in the first match of the badminton group stage, but the result was the same defeat against a stronger opponent in the second match.
Le Thi Mong Tuyen did not pass the qualifying round of 10m air rifle shooting, Vo Thi My Tien and Nguyen Huy Hoang in swimming were really at a disadvantage compared to their opponents on the green swimming track.
Pham Thi Hue, like Nguyen Thi Huong, only competed until the end in the rowing qualifying round. Tran Thi Nhi Yen in athletics can only pass the preliminary round.
Do Thi Anh Nguyet and Le Quoc Phong have less hope that archery will have many excellent opponents.
In the end, Trinh Van Vinh failed in weightlifting when he failed once in the sentencing event, so he did not have a place in the push-ups exam.
For the second consecutive Olympic Games, Vietnamese sports have no medals. The problem is not whether or not the athletes are at fault, but in the lessons learned, if Vietnamese sports want to move up to meet expectations, many things must be changed.
