On March 24, the host, Japan, officially postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to an outbreak of acute respiratory infections (COVID-19) worldwide. Expectedly, the time for Olympic 2020 in will be from July 23 to August 08, 2021.
The postponement of the Olympics to 2021 is really a huge challenge for athletes. Currently, COVID-19 is still going extremely unpredictable in many countries around the world, so many tournaments have to pause and no schedule of reorganization, so it is difficult for teams to define the training process.
Athletes actively return to practice.
This makes it difficult for unsatisfied athletes to have many difficulties in training, determining the dropping point and psychology. Moreover, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is difficult for them to get back in pace, especially for older athletes who have to isolate and train themselves at home for a long time.
After a period of social distancing and camp ban, some Vietnamese national teams have officially returned to normal practice. At the Can Tho National Sports Training Center, Vietnamese swimmers and many other young swimmers are excited for water-acclimatization exercises after more than a month of no training.
After a long period of no training in water, the swimmers’ feelings are more or less affected. During this period, the goal of the Vietnam Swimming team was to regain their senses, so the training sessions lasted only about 3 hours instead of 4 to 5 hours as before. It is expected that after 2 weeks, new athletes can regain their normal feeling and performance.
Due to COVID-19, swimmers’ feelings are more or less affected.
Along with our swimming teams, the national athletics, sailing, and weightlifting teams these days are working hard to regain their performance. They still keep training twice a day with the athletes’ common desire that the tournaments quickly return so that they nurture their most recent career goals of winning Olympic standards.
According to the General Department of Sports and Sports, currently, Sports Vietnam has about 1,350 athletes concentrating on training at 4 National Sports Training Centers, among them, the National Center for Sports and Sports, Hanoi has the highest number of athletes of regularly training, about 700 athletes. The National Sports Training Center in Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho have 200, 250 and 200 athletes, respectively, are present after the holiday to gather as planned.
Although the majority of sports tournaments have been postponed or canceled this year due to the COVID-19, the determination of the coaches and players in this rally is still maintained with a very high determination to ready for the goals ahead, including the 20 tickets to attend the Olympic 2020.
Up to now, Vietnam Sports has only 5 athletes who have won tickets to the Tokyo Olympics next summer, Nguyen Huy Hoang (swimming), Le Thanh Tung (gymnastics), Do Thi Anh Nguyet and Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu (archery) and Nguyen Van Duong (boxing). So a quarter of the target is reached.
According to Mr. Tran Duc Phan, Deputy Director of the General Department of Physical Training and Sports, the sports industry sets a target of 20 athletes to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics of which 14 subjects with strong content include swimming, gymnastics. , archery, weightlifting, athletics, shooting, taekwondo, Karatedo, bicycle, badminton, sailing, fencing, judo and wrestling. Therefore, the remaining 15 Olympic tickets are expected for athletes of the above subjects, such as Nguyen Tien Minh, Nguyen Thuy Linh, Vu Thi Trang (badminton), Nguyen Thi Huyen (athletics), Vu Thanh An and Do Thi Anh (fencing), Thanh Ngung, Anh Vien (swimming), Thach Kim Tuan, Vuong Thi Huyen (weightlifting)…
Thus, Vietnam Sports will continue to gain the big goal of winning 20 places to attend the Olympic Games 2020.
After the post-COVID-19 period, Vietnam Sports continued to train to fulfill its great goal to win 20 places to attend the 2020 Olympic Games and especially to actively prepare for the 31st SEA Games 2021 will be held in Vietnam.
Ngoc Minh