To have won and participated in the Olympic arena twice was an extraordinary will, overcoming hardships, and the desire and tireless fighting spirit of Hanoi athlete, Vuong Thi Huyen.
Overcoming the pain
Born in 1992, the Bac Giang girl, Vuong Thi Huyen came to Hanoi weightlifting at the age of 16, too late to start a career as a weightlifter. Knowing her starting point is limited, Vuong Thi Huyen has worked hard to make up for those weaknesses. In training, not only did she complete the exercises assigned by the coaches every day, she also “volunteered” to receive more weight and worked hard to lift weights after each lesson. Thanks to that, it only took two years for Huyen to reach the level, the achievement of a weightlifter that has practised for 5-6 years.
Vuong Thi Huyen burst into tears after winning gold at SEA Games 30.
Since 2012, Huyen has become the weightlifter no. 1 in the 48kg category at national youth tournaments with the top professional parameters in Vietnam. In 2013, Huyen was privileged to train for the Vietnamese team. Right at the time of ecstasy of being a national player, the ‘monkey age’ girl had to bear the greatest pain of her life when her mother in the countryside suddenly passed away forever.
In 2013, I had just trained in the team for a few days when my mother died at home. At the point of death, my mother told everyone not to tell me so I couldn’t see her one last time. Many times, while lifting weights, I cried because I loved and could not repay my mother. The more I love my mother, the more determined I am to practice because I want my mother to smile when she sees that her daughter has grown up,” Huyen once shared.
It is thought that it was the biggest pain of the weightlifter, Vuong Thi Huyen, however, in 2019, before the 30th SEA Games, she continued to bear the pain of losing her father. In November 2019, when the weightlifting team was training in China, Huyen received news that her father had passed away. She asked permission from her trainers to go into mourn and only 3 days later returned to China to continue the training process with a black bandage on her chest. Swallowing her tears inside, suppressing the pain to compete in the 30th SEA Games, Vuong Thi Huyen excellently won the gold medal in the women’s 45kg weightlifting. The achievement of Hanoi athletes reached a total of 172kg (77kg snatch, 95kg clean & jerk). This parameter is better than the achievement that brought her to the top of Asia in April 2019 (168kg).
Crying after winning the gold medal, Vuong Thi Huyen choked in front of the media: “This is a great achievement for my sports career. I want to dedicate this medal to the fans, the coaching staff and especially my dad who just passed away. Although my father is no more, he has given me strength and motivation for me to overcome my opponents.”
For Huyen, the most regrettable thing is to lose the 2016 Olympic medal due to a technical error; however, the 30th SEA Games gold medal has become a testament to the results of determination and overcoming pain. And Huyen’s total weightlifting achievement of 172kg is even more admirable when it is equal to the Olympic bronze medal in the 45kg weight class. This gave Huyen more motivation to achieve her second goal of attending the Olympics.
Accomplish the goal of attending the 2020 Olympics
Practising weightlifting since 2008; however, it was not until the National Sports Games 2014 that Vuong Thi Huyen was able to get a medal. And also from here, Huyen began to be noticed by experts when creating a bright record with a total weight of 181kg.
Vuong Thi Huyen (left) with a bronze medal at the world championships2015.
Just as experts say, in just the last 3 months of 2015, from an unknown athlete right in Vietnam, Huyen has stepped up to the top of the continental and international weightlifting village. In September 2015, Huyen made surprise when she won 2 gold medals at the Asian Championships (snatch and total weight) with a total weight of 190kg. At the World Championships in November 2015, the Vietnamese female weightlifter made a surprise in the 48kg weight category when she won 2 silvers and 1 bronze with the achievements of 85kg snatch (silver medal) and 109kg clean & jerk (bronze medal). In addition, Huyen has another silver medal with a total weight of 194kg. With the achievement of winning the Asian gold medal and the silver medal at the World Championships, Vuong Thi Huyen was selected as the candidate to attend the 2016 Olympic Games in the women’s 48kg category.
Attending the Olympic Games 2016, Vuong Thi Huyen is one of the five hopes of winning a medal of Vietnam Sports. However, the Hanoi athlete soon had to leave Rio 2016 because she could not show her convincing performance when she failed all 3 times in the snatch content. Farewell to Rio, Vuong Thi Huyen had to say goodbye to her dream of having a medal at the 2016 Olympics and continue her goal of returning to this arena again.
Vuong Thi Huyen won two gold medals in the 48kg category at the Asian Championships 2015.
According to the results at the Olympic qualifying tournaments of the Vietnamese weightlifters (2018 World Championships, 2019 World Cups, 2019 Asian Championships), Vuong Thi Huyen is proving that she can win tickets to attend Olympics. She is fully capable of entering the top 8 in the world according to the ranking of the World Weightlifting Federation, which will be announced next year. Or at least, she can win an Asian seat for those who are not in the top 8 in the world. One of her advantages is the absence of Thai athletes in the 2020 Olympic qualifiers (due to a doping ban). This further strengthens Huyen’s opportunity to participate in the 2020 Olympics – which is always in the top 8 in the world in the lightweight classes that she participates in.
At the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships, as well as a point-to-point tournament for the 2020 Olympic Games taking place in China from April 18 to 28, Hanoi’s weightlifter, Vuong Thi Huyen excellently won 3 gold medals in the women’s 45kg category. Previously, at the World Weightlifting Cup in February 2019, Vuong Thi Huyen won two gold medals, with 98kg of clean & jerk and 170kg of total weight. As for the snatch event, she reached 72kg and won the silver medal due to the same achievement but lost in the sub-index compared to the gold medalist.
Letter of confirmation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) recognizing that Vietnamese weightlifting gets 3 places to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.[/caption]
With constant training efforts and even her best efforts in the competition of point-to-point tournament since the 2016 Olympics until now, Hanoi’s weightlifter, Vuong Thi Huyen has achieved her goal of winning tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Dream of winning a medal at the Olympics
Winning the official ticket to the Tokyo Olympics 2020, this is the second time Vuong Thi Huyen has participated in an Olympics. Receiving this news, the Hanoi athlete, Vuong Thi Huyen expressed her joy, as her efforts in training and competition since the 2016 Olympics have paid off. “This achievement is somewhat unexpectedly and fortunately, because in the past 2 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused many tournaments to be postponed, cancelled and greatly affected the achievements in training and competition. I will have to work harder to achieve a good result in my second time participating in an Olympics,” said athlete Vuong Thi Huyen.
Vuong Thi Huyen with the dream of winning medals at the Olympics
Yes, to fulfill her dream of winning medals at the Olympics, Vuong Thi Huyen herself has to work even harder. Because, after returning from the 2021 Asian Championships at the end of April, the Vietnamese weightlifting team has 5 members; including coach Hoang Huu Chi, Luu Van Thang and three athletes Hoang Thi Duyen, Vuong Thi Huyen, Thach Kim Tuan had to spend 21 days in concentrated isolation at the Medical Center of Bau Bang district (Binh Duong province). Being also present with the team were over 400 Vietnamese citizens returning from Korea and all must comply with the regulations of 21-day concentrated isolation to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the Vietnamese weightlifting team are in concentrated isolation after returning from the 2021 Asian Championships
In the period of focusing on training to prepare for international competitions, with concentrated isolation, in addition to nutrition, Vuong Thi Huyen and her teammates were completely unable to practice to maintain fitness and manners due to travel restrictions at the isolation area.
On May 12, that is, after 20 days of preparing to end the isolation, someone in the concentration area was infected with Covid-19, so the members of the Vietnamese weightlifting team, including Vuong Thi Huyen, had to stay for additional 14-21 days.
As we all know, sport is a continuous, systematic matter, so being interrupted has greatly affected the expertise of athletes. To overcome this problem, in the next quarantine period, the Vietnam Weightlifting Federation proposed to move the weights to the isolation area, but it could only be overcome more or less because it was not possible to bring enough weights in. As for the diet, it has also been improved somewhat by buying food from outside and sending it in.
Therefore, after returning from isolation, Vuong Thi Huyen and her teammates had to work hard to get back in shape to be ready for the day they left for Tokyo to fulfill their dream of winning medals at the Olympic Games.
HOANG VINH