In the world arena, 8 is an encouraging number, because it is still much higher than many other countries from all over the planet. However, as the story has become familiar for many years, quantity does not mean quality. Vietnamese badminton only has 2 events (Vu Thi Trang women's singles, Pham Thi Dieu Ly - Pham Thi Khanh women's doubles) to reach the 2nd round.
Looking at neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese badminton is only better than Singapore (7 players) in number - but they have Loh Kean Yew in the 3rd round of men's singles, Philippines (4) and Myanmar (2). Meanwhile, Indonesia 24 people, Malaysia 20 and Thailand 18. Malaysia brought home 1 Silver Medal (men's doubles), Indonesia 1 Bronze Medal (men's-women's doubles), Thailand 1 Bronze Medal (men's singles).
Another statistic, in singles events, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia all have 3 to 4 players in the Top 100 world - some are in the Top 10, Top 20, Vietnam only has 1 to 2 representatives. Nguyen Thuy Linh has the highest ranking of 29 (according to the latest update after the world tournament).
Even before Pickleball appeared, developing professional badminton in Vietnam was already a difficult problem, although the movement was not weak. Compared to other sports, badminton requires quite comprehensive skills, from legs, arms to physical strength and will. But that is only a personal development factor, while for the national badminton to move forward, it needs systematic factors - detection, training, finance, logistics...
Bottlenecks" issues are still not new from many years ago, they can be used again and are still very topical. Because there are still domestic tournaments, there are still "promising talents", but to step up to a higher level when they grow up is a loop of a series of difficulties mentioned.
The search for talent is of course still ongoing, but as long as there are no high-quality training locations instead of spontaneous ones, the successor nature will be like a flawedly cut thread, only waiting for an individual to emerge (mostly self-reliant) rather than a "production chain" like Indonesia and Thailand have done.
Difficulties are still there, nowhere to go - even other countries have their own difficulties, so sometimes different perspectives, different mindsets, and different actions are needed to remove them.
