Paralympics 2024: Admiring athlete Le Van Cong

Even though he is 40 years old and not in the best physical condition, athlete Le Van Cong still brings joy to the Vietnamese disabled sports delegation.

Le Van Cong (right cover) won the bronze medal at the 2024 Paralympics - Photo: AFP

At the 2024 Paralympics, Le Van Cong is the number 1 medal hope of the Vietnamese delegation. He is currently the world record holder (183.5kg) and Paralympic record holder (183kg). Le Van Cong also won the 2016 Paralympic gold medal and the 2020 Paralympic silver medal in the 49kg weight category. On the afternoon of September 4, he entered the finals of the 49kg weight category with very strong opponents such as Abdullah Kayapinar (Turkey) and Omar Qarada (Jordan). In which, Qarada defeated Le Van Cong at the 2020 Paralympics to win the gold medal. At the 2024 Paralympics, he also faced many disadvantages due to injuries from before the tournament. The reason he could not recover in time was because he had to continuously compete to compete for a ticket to the Paralympics. By the time his participation was confirmed, Le Van Cong had too little time to heal. Sharing with Tuoi Tre before leaving, he said he had to practice and recover at the same time. But in the face of difficulties, Le Van Cong still tried his best. That is the personality that has helped him bring back many glories in the past. And that spirit continued to be brought to Paris on the afternoon of September 4. Le Van Cong was soon under pressure when other weightlifters successfully lifted 161kg and 162kg. Under pressure to win a medal, he was forced to register for 171kg in the first lift. And Le Van Cong succeeded at this weight. This forced Kayapinar and Qarada to raise the weights to 172kg and 175kg respectively. The Vietnamese weightlifter was very determined when registering for quite heavy weights of 176kg in the second lift and 181kg in the third. Unfortunately, he could not overcome the situation due to injury. However, his achievement of 171kg was enough to win the bronze medal, 9kg more than the fourth-placed Nandor Tunkel (Hungary). Up to now, Le Van Cong has collected the full trio of Paralympic gold, silver and bronze medals. That is an achievement that is very difficult for any other Vietnamese athlete to achieve. But more importantly, at this time, Le Van Cong does not want to stop but is determined to continue to participate in the Paralympics in 4 years. With his extraordinary will and determination, he deserves it.

With Le Van Cong's bronze medal, Vietnamese disabled sports have achieved the set target of winning 1 to 2 Paralympic medals in 2024. Also on the afternoon of September 4, track and field athlete Pham Nguyen Khanh Minh could not pass the qualifying round of the men's 400m in the T12 disabled category.

Tuoitre.vn

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/paralympic-2024-nguong-mo-luc-si-le-van-cong-20240905081127011.htm