Huy Hoang won 2 Asian gold medals: Achievements encouraging Vietnamese swimming

(Dan Tri) - The fact that swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang won two gold medals at the 2025 Asian Swimming Championship is a positive signal for Vietnamese swimming, towards the 2026 Asiad and the 2028 Olympics.

Nguyen Huy Hoang won two gold medals in the men's 1,500m freestyle and men's 800m freestyle. In addition to the gold medals mentioned above, Nguyen Huy Hoang also won a silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle.

On the Vietnamese team side, we have another silver medal in the men's 100m breaststroke by Pham Thanh Bao, a silver medal in the men's 400m medley by Pham Hung Nguyen, a silver medal in the women's 200m freestyle by Vo Thi My Tien, a silver medal in the women's 400m freestyle by Nguyen Kha Nhi, and a silver medal in the women's 1,500m freestyle by Nguyen Kha Nhi.

Regarding bronze medals, the Vietnamese team has a bronze medal in the men's 200m breaststroke event of Pham Thanh Bao, a bronze medal in the men's 200m medley event of Tran Hung Nguyen, a bronze medal in the women's 100m freestyle event of Nguyen Thuy Hien, a bronze medal in the women's 200m medley event of Vo Thi My Tien, a bronze medal in the women's 400m medley event of Vo Thi My Tien and a bronze medal in the mixed 4x100m medley event of both men and women.

In total, by the end of the 4th day of the 11th Asian Championship in 2025 taking place in India, the Vietnamese team has 15 medals of all kinds, including 2 gold medals, 7 silver medals and 6 bronze medals, ranking 4th overall. This is quite an impressive number.

Huy Hoang unexpectedly won 2 Asian gold medals (Photo: Getty).

Reasons why Vietnamese swimming occupies a high position

The fact that the Vietnamese team in general, and swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang in particular, have taken a high position after the first four days of competition at the Asian Championship, is because many strong teams such as China and Japan did not send their best athletes to participate.

The reason is probably because the athletes are focusing on other tasks, calculating their physical strength and form for other competitions that are more important to them, including the Asian Games next year.

Therefore, although they have not achieved their best personal results, Vietnamese athletes still ranked high in some of their competitions. For example, with Nguyen Huy Hoang, his best result in the men's 1,500m freestyle was 14 minutes 41.

At the ongoing Asian Championship, Huy Hoang achieved a time of 15 minutes 15 seconds 01, still far from his best result, but the "Gianh River otter" still won the Asian Championship.

Similarly, in the men's 800m freestyle event, Nguyen Huy Hoang's best result was 7 minutes 50 seconds 20. This is the parameter he achieved at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games (China). Last night (October 1), this swimmer reached the achievement mark of 7 minutes 57 seconds 58, but he still won the gold medal, because his opponents were still far behind him.

Nguyen Huy Hoang won the Asian gold medal, despite not having the best performance (Photo: Getty).

The fact that Asia’s strongest athletes do not participate in the continental championship currently taking place in India has a two-way impact. Firstly, Huy Hoang in particular and Vietnamese athletes in general can easily win medals. At the same time, in the opposite direction, this also affects the achievements of Vietnamese athletes, including Huy Hoang.

For example, if the opponent is stronger, the competition in the finals is higher, sometimes Huy Hoang's performance parameters are better than what has just been displayed. Because against a strong opponent, the competition on the green track will be more fierce, the athletes will compete more focused, have more motivation to accelerate than usual.

Therefore, the technical parameters of Huy Hoang and the Vietnamese athletes, in theory, do not reflect their full potential. These parameters can be completely improved when facing other opponents, in races of a different nature.

Prospects at major sporting events

The next notable detail is that all 15 medals of all kinds and 2 gold medals of the Vietnamese team, up to this point in the Asian tournament, have come from speed competitions. There are no medals in synchronized swimming. This reflects that we are focusing our investment on a number of strong events, in the direction of key investment.

This is the right direction, following the trend of modern sports. With the economic and human potential not as abundant as Vietnam Sports currently has, the more focused our investment, the better.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh, former Director of the Department of High Performance Sports (under the National Sports Committee) commented: "Even the world's sports powers such as Russia, South Korea, and Germany are currently only focusing on a few strong sports for key investment. In each sport, they choose a few of the strongest events for specialized investment, not spreading out."

Huy Hoang (right) can aim for good results at major sporting events (Photo: Getty).

“Therefore, Vietnamese sports should also follow this specialized direction. If we do well in investing in key and specialized areas, we can definitely think about winning a gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games (in Japan) and having a medal at the 2028 Olympics (in the US).

Nguyen Huy Hoang won the silver medal at the 2019 Asian Games with a time of 14 minutes 58 seconds 53. Notably, Huy Hoang's achievement at that time was only behind that of athlete Sun Yang (China), who won the gold medal in the men's 1,500m freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics. Therefore, we can expect something in the major events, if we go in the right direction," Mr. Minh added.

Currently, with 2 gold medals at the Asian Championships, in the men's 1,500m freestyle and men's 800m freestyle, Huy Hoang has shown that he is quite stable in his strong events. The remaining problem is that he needs to be well trained and compete in many high-quality competitions to maintain his form and improve his achievements.

That is something that Vietnamese swimming can absolutely aim for, not only for Huy Hoang, but also for the most promising swimmers.

We have done something very difficult, which is to successfully develop swimming, from zero in regional and continental competitions many years ago, to become a leading power in Southeast Asia and a country capable of achieving results in the Asian arena. It is important to know that swimming is one of the two most basic and difficult sports in sports events (along with athletics).

What needs to be done now, for Huy Hoang and for swimming, is to take another step forward, turning those who have the potential to win gold medals at the Asian Games, the potential to win Olympic medals, like Huy Hoang, into athletes who are truly capable of competing for achievements in these arenas.

Two Asian gold medals, along with 15 medals of various types won in India in recent days, are encouragement for Vietnamese swimming to move forward!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/huy-hoang-gianh-2-hcv-chau-a-thanh-tich-khich-le-boi-loi-viet-nam-20251002132315549.htm