Olympics

Coaches, athletes and officials pose for photos at the Việt Nam Team's send-off ceremony on July 17. The team will leave for the Paris Olympics with hope of winning medals. — VNS Photo Quý Lượng

HÀ NỘI — Chef-de-Mission Đặng Hà Việt today will lead the Việt Nam Olympics Team to France where the 16-strong contingent expect to win medals at the Paris Games 2024.

Some of athletes have already arrived in Paris because of their early competition schedules and training programmes, but the majority including managers, officials and staff will join them after a 12-hour flight from Hà Nội.

Prior to their flight, Việt, director of the Sports Authority of Việt Nam (SAV), reviewed the national athletes' efforts to secure their places and spoke about their hopes over the 17-days of competitions.

"After all qualifications, our 16 athletes have earned their spots including 14 automatic ones and two wildcards. It is one more than our plan and accurately reflects the development of Việt Nam's sport in this period," said Việt.

"It is due to the SAV's investment plan for athletes in 14 sports so that they could reach Olympics standards. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also held a conference discussing about solutions to raise athletes' level to have a chance winning medals at the Asian Games and Olympics. We have strictly been applying these solutions and gradually achieved initial results."

Among the sports, swimming and athletics are considered key. Swimmer Nguyễn Huy Hoàng officially qualified in the men's 800m freestyle while his teammate Võ Thị Mỹ Tiên received a wildcard to take part in the women's 200m individual medley event.

Meanwhile, young runner Trần Thị Nhi Yến earned a universality place in women's 100m.

Chef-de-Mission Đặng Hà Việt speaks at the Việt Nam Team's send-off ceremony on July 17. — VNS Photo Quý Lượng

"They are two basic sports of the Olympics and considered a measure of the development of a country's sports industry. All countries have paid high attention on these sports, applying a lot of research on training science and technology. It leads to higher performance of athletes and Asian, world or Olympic records are constantly broken.

"We also have good athletes such as Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên, Hoàng Quý Phước, Phạm Thanh Bảo, Trần Hưng Nguyên, Nguyễn Hữu Kim Sơn, Hoàng and Tiên and the youngest one Nguyễn Thúy Hiền, but they are still at the regional level.

"To reach continental and world levels, we need lot of time and more importantly, strong investment in science, technology, and training," he said.

Although Việt Nam have one Olympic spot more than its set target, the SAV director still regretted that athletes of expected sports did not complete their task, missing this Olympic edition.

"Taekwondo, gymnastics, table tennis and 4x400m women's team were expected to qualify after their remarkable progress during the preparation. However, it was not enough to reach their target and they failed," said Việt.

He added that some sports such as wrestling, boxing, women's recurve team and rowing women's pair were also reported to have seen a breakthrough, but it did not happen.

He said it showed that international competitions were really tough, as it was closely correlated with a country's economy, science and technology, and required a lot of resources.

Asked about Việt Nam's preparation and hopes in Paris, Việt confirmed that the Games were the most important and most competitive in 2024 and all Vietnamese participants were well trained and were ready.

"Athletes and coaches are given best training conditions locally and internationally and well taken care to recover after activities. Works on improving their mentality is also conducted. All are to ensure they would take highest result in Paris," said Việt.

"Despite a big gap of level between our athletes and world rivals, we still set a target of taking medal(s) from these games. Athletes from shooting, archery and weightlifting are our medal hopes."

Việt Nam will take part in 11 sports. Archers are the first to compete on July 25, while canoeist Nguyễn Thị Hương will be the last in competition, on August 8.

Badminton player Lê Đức Phát and cyclist Nguyễn Thị Thật will be the national flag bearers at the opening ceremony on July 26. — VNS