Born and raised in Quynh Phu, Thai Binh, but Hanoi is the place to give wings to boxer, Nguyen Thi Tam to fly away. Participating in boxing training at the end of 2009, to the beginning of 2010, Nguyen Thi Tam was praised by a local teacher and brought to Hanoi to practice.
Creating a miracle for Vietnamese boxing
When she was new and “furnished” in Hanoi boxing, the girl born in 1994 looked thin and small, not as tall as she is now. In the first days of boxing at Quan Ngua Sports Palace (Hanoi), through physical exercises, Tam felt excited. However, she entered the technical training, she had to get used to fighting the punches and then was so scared, so the Thai Binh girl asked to go home because she was afraid of pain. Fortunately, there were teachers in the coaching staff who encouraged her and then gradually Tam overcame her fear.
After 12 years of a martial arts career, Nguyen Thi Tam owns a remarkable collection of medals.
With perseverance in practice as well as being trained in the professional boxing school of Hanoi, after 12 years of martial arts, Nguyen Thi Tam has owned a remarkable collection of medals: at the regional level, the capital boxer won the bronze medal of ASIAD 2018, the gold medal of ASIAN Women’s Boxing Champion 2017, the Champion of the European – Asian Star Boxing Tournament 2019 and the defending champion of the 30th SEA Games, weight class of 51 kg. In the domestic arena, she won 2 silver medals at the 2013 and 2016 National Boxing Club Championships; 1 gold medal also at this tournament in 2018.
In the above achievement, it is worth noting the gold medal at the 2017 Asian Boxing Championships held in November in Ho Chi Minh City. In the final match, Nguyen Thi Tam excellently defeated the great boxer, Pang Choi Mi (North Korea) to win the historic gold medal in the 51kg category for Vietnam Boxing. Worth mentioning, in this tournament, 5 Vietnamese female boxers reached the final, but only Nguyen Thi Tam created a miracle. Until now, it is still the most “expensive” medal on the Vietnamese boxing continent.
Nguyen Thi Tam was crowned at the 2017 Asian Boxing Championships.
It must also be mentioned that Tam’s victory at the 30th SEA Games. With the maturity of her career, along with her experience, in knowing the “feeling of competing in SEA Games” for the first time, Hanoi boxers were not overwhelmed despite facing great pressure.
Competing in the 51kg weight class, Nguyen Thi Tam went straight to the final. In the last match against Magno Irish of the host country, the Philippines, Nguyen Thi Tam showed her great manners. With the advantage of height and good arm span, smart tactics and excellent technique, Tam won convincingly with an overwhelming score of 4-1, thereby winning a gold medal.
Winning herself
With an ideal body shape, 1.68 m tall, Nguyen Thi Tam possesses special and comprehensive skills of boxing that few boxers own. Tam is considered one of the top female boxers in Vietnam, with her Southpaw fighting style with lightning arms and quick feet. In addition, the Hanoi female boxer also has special skills not only in the ability to attack but also in the ability to defend. She always finds the loopholes of the opponent to launch precise attacks.
The expert, Mr. Tawan Mungphingklang, who is currently coaching the Hanoi women’s boxing team, highly appreciated the qualities and talents of the boxer born in 1994: “Tam has the advantage of height, good physical strength, long arm span, extremely fast reflexes with a pre-emptive attack, making a continuous attack to force the opponent into a passive, supporting position that martial artists often call Southpaw and is preferred by left-handed boxers.
Nguyen Thi Tam competes in boxing at Victory 8 – Legend of Hoan Kiem.
However, in order to achieve glory on the mat, Nguyen Thi Tam had to work hard to practice, overcome herself as well as overcome prejudice barriers. Tam said that in the process of practicing boxing, a fighting sport that requires a lot of physical strength and ability to withstand blows, the fact that you get injured, bruised, bruising to her face, limbs, and body aches is a problem happening every day.
With hard work, diligence, professional attitude in practice and competition, Tam has been rewarded with the honor of standing on the top podium in many domestic and international arenas. Not satisfied with the above achievements, the Hanoi talented female boxer always aims to conquer professional tournaments at the regional and world level.
The Hanoi boxing training place gives wings to the dream to fly away
Along with hard training, professionalism in practice and competition, Tam also has a good fortune i.e. to be trained in the Hanoi boxing center with a professional and methodical investment. Established in 2000, Hanoi women’s boxing was at the forefront of the task of training boxers to prepare to enter the 2005 SEA Games. The responsibility was then assigned to the coach Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong (Vietnam’s top boxer in the 57kg, 60kg category, 64kg male, participated in ASIAD 1990) with the hope of achieving success in the Regional Sports Festival.
Nguyen Thi Tam has no domestic rivals.
In order to have a talented boxer like Nguyen Thi Tam, Hanoi women’s boxing has gone through a process of “sanding to find gold”, “leapfrog” and investing methodically in this subject. Experiencing many difficulties in the process of building and developing, Hanoi women’s boxing now becomes the leading flag when contributing core athletes, shouldering the responsibility of winning a medal in international arenas.
Nguyen Thi Tam with the coach Nguyen Nhu Cuong (left) and expert Tawan Mungphingklang.
Starting with the 2013 SEA Games’ gold medal by Ha Thi Linh, then the 2015 SEA Games gold medal by Nguyen Thi Yen and most recently, the 2019 SEA Games gold medal of boxer Nguyen Thi Tam. In the continental playground, Nguyen Thi Tam became the first Vietnamese boxer to win the Asian championship (in 2017) and win a medal in the world arena…
In addition, since 2014, Boxing Hanoi also invited the expert, Mr. Tawan Mungphingklang who achieved 3-star level (who led the Thai women’s boxing team at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics) to train athletes of the Vietnamese women’s boxing team gathering in the North as well as Hanoi martial artists, including Nguyen Thi Tam. With the training of expert Tawan, Nguyen Thi Tam’s expertise has been significantly enhanced, becoming a stepping stone for the Hanoi boxer to achieve much success in regional and world arenas.
Olympic Accomplishing goals – winning tickets to the Olympics
After 12 years of following the boxing career with much glory, Nguyen Thi Tam still aspires to aim for new heights. In 2020, Hanoi’s boxer set two big goals for herself: winning tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and defending the championship at the 31st SEA Games.
Nguyen Thi Tam completed her goal of winning a ticket to the Olympics.
Due to the pandemic situation, the goal of winning a ticket to the 2020 Olympics for Tam contains more challenges than most. When qualifying tournaments to win tickets to the Tokyo Olympics were repeatedly postponed or cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic or Tam competed with bad luck.
At the Asian Qualifiers in March 2020 in Jordan, just winning the first match was the way to win tickets to the Olympics, because of the draw results, Tam had to fight with a very strong opponent from China. In the domestic arena, the lack of opponents – both in practice and in competition – makes Nguyen Thi Tam almost no match in 2020.
However, with tireless efforts, in the end, luck did not turn away from Nguyen Thi Tam. On the evening of June 10, the Hanoi boxer was confirmed to win the 11th Tokyo Olympics for the Vietnamese sports delegation.
Nguyen Thi Tam won the opportunity to attend the Tokyo Olympics when she accumulated 190 points after completing the tournaments in the system organized by the World Boxing Federation. And this opportunity of Nguyen Thi Tam also comes partly from the fact that North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Olympics, which means that North Korea’s boxer no. 1 on the World Rankings, Park Mi Choi, will not attend the Games this time. Therefore, a score of 190 is just enough for Nguyen Thi Tam to complete her goal of participating in the Olympic Games.
MINH TUAN