Director Khanh Thi spent 8 billion to organize an international tournament, not daring to watch her husband and children compete.

Khanh Thi has just completed the mission of organizing the Vietnam Dancesport Festival 2025 - an event that marks a historic milestone when Vietnam first hosted 3 international tournaments at the same time. With a cost of more than 8 billion VND from her own pocket and nights staying up until 3 am to arrange the competition schedule, she shared with VietNamNet about her difficult but proud journey.

More than 8 billion VND for the dream, at 3am still dividing the competition content

To host the Southeast Asian, Asian and World Open Championships, Khanh Thi must meet the strict standards of the international federation. The competition venue must accommodate 4,000-5,000 people, have full facilities, and be close to many standard hotels serving international athletes and referees.

"We had to provide free hotel accommodation for athletes participating in the championship, almost all of them. We needed nearly 100 national and international referees, not to mention the service staff in many groups: secretaries, award presenters, musicians...", Khanh Thi said.

In particular, she had to pay a registration fee of more than 1 billion VND. This is the first time Vietnam has organized an international dance competition with the combination of private individuals and the gymnastics federation. The biggest difficulty is not only money but also time pressure.

Convention centers offered 5-7 billion VND for just 5 days of rental, without any sponsors. "I agreed with the staff that if I had to spend 5-7 billion VND to rent the venue, I would still accept it. I don't want my award to be a disappointment when everyone is looking forward to it."

The WDSF Vietnam Dancesport Festival 2025 tournament was a great success.

With over 3,000 athletes registering, Khanh Thi faced the task of arranging the competition schedule from 7am to 12am without finishing. There were days when she had to stay up until 3am to divide the competition content. The number of people registering was too large, how could she allocate them to compete on time?

Phan Hien, both a husband and an athlete, also shared the burden with his wife. Those days, he could only practice for 2 hours before having to run errands to help his wife, prepare for the competition and take care of the organization.

The event attracted more than 3,000 athletes, more than 4,000 registrations from 37 countries, creating a record of scale that no other dancesport tournament in Asia has achieved. For Khanh Thi, the proudest thing is not the successful organization but the number of people attending the opening ceremony.

"I dare not watch my husband and children take the exam"

The mental pressure of being both an organizer and an international referee is also a problem when Khanh Thi has to witness her husband Phan Hien and son Kubi compete.

"I had to hold back my emotions because I had to be conscientious towards my colleagues. When Hien won the prize, as a referee, I was happy but I had no right to show any emotions in front of everyone.

I didn't dare to look at Kubi competing. When I looked, people would think 'she's looking at her child', so who would dare to judge? I'm a reputable referee, and I have a lot of influence on other things, so I didn't dare to look at my child dancing. When my child won, I ignored him. At the end of the day, my husband started saying 'honey, please take a picture'. It was so pitiful," Khanh Thi shared.

Kubi - 10 years old with a series of impressive achievements is facing the biggest challenge. In addition to being the world champion for children twice, he has won the national championship for children for two consecutive years, always at the top of the South in international competitions.

"Kubi started to turn 10 years old and had to compete with older brothers and sisters. The golden time in the junior category was starting to pass. According to the rules, once you win a category, you cannot return and must move up to the next category. You have to compete with the juniors even though you are still a child," Khanh Thi shared.

Khanh Thi is worried because Kubi is growing, his bones are long but his joints are not yet connected enough. She is worried but does not force him because he still has a long way to go.

She and Phan Hien decided to invest in Kubi until he turns 18 to see how far his achievements will go, then let him decide his own future.

Regarding her two daughters Anna and Lisa, Khanh Thi frankly said: "The three children dance beautifully, but to become a champion, you have to be passionate and able to withstand pressure. Kubi can handle it, but Anna and Lisa cannot. Anna only competed once, stepped on the stage and then walked out." From then on, Khanh Thi decided not to force her children to pursue dancesport.

Online sales and schedule from 6am to 11pm

Behind the glitz and glamour of achievements and titles is a life full of financial pressure. With a monthly salary of 7-8 million as a coach, Khanh Thi does not hesitate to share about the "huge" expenses of the whole family.

"Every year, Mr. Hien spends at least 3-4 billion VND to compete. Every month he competes in Europe, the round-trip ticket costs 120 million VND, not including food, accommodation, and training," she calculated realistically.

Sharing about selling online, Khanh Thi said: "It started from my love of shopping, and later on, I understood and wanted to advise many people on how to use it properly. I started a business and paid taxes in full. However, recently, I have been too busy, so I have temporarily stopped."

Khanh Thi - Phan Hien's family life is like a non-stop machine. "If he doesn't have work, Hien wakes up at 7am to take the kids to school. If he has to 'negotiate' with Kubi, Anna lets the kids give him a day off," she said.

Khanh Thi is the same: "Teaching athletes ends practice at 10:30-11:00 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, I go to school from 6:00 a.m. I continue to study to get more degrees. My husband often jokes : You study so much, when will you stop studying?"

The children are used to this lifestyle. She jokes that they know their parents' schedule inside out, "even outside they don't deviate from it, the whole family is used to it." Luckily, the grandparents support them and arrange for someone to look after them during the couple's working hours. The grandparents also like to babysit, so the couple is very lucky.

Don't dare to think of the word "exhausted"

Faced with the huge workload, Khanh Thi replied: "I don't dare feel exhausted."

After the tournament, she had no time off. "Two days after the tournament, I organized training for the referees to stay and teach. They were not allowed to teach in advance because people thought the contestants were familiar with the referees. Two days later, I flew to China to judge the competition for four consecutive days. My mind had to be extremely clear, the organization was different but the judging was different. Two days after returning home, I flew to Malaysia to judge the competition. I still had no time off."

She only went to Phan Thiet with her family once for a day and a half. Phan Hien suggested "let's go together" but she replied: "If you remember, our children have never had a summer vacation."

Despite taking on many roles from Director of the Institute of Culture and Arts at the University of Economics and Finance in Ho Chi Minh City to Vice President of the Electronic Entertainment Sports Association, Khanh Thi is determined to continue developing dancesport. "I am the one who contributed to bringing dancesport to Vietnam from the beginning, so I have the responsibility to continue," she said.

Khanh Thi - Phan Hien spontaneously dance together:

Photo: FBNV

Khanh Thi and Phan Hien's age gap love story from controversy to a happy marriage Khanh Thi and Phan Hien, from a teacher-student relationship with an 11-year age gap, went through 13 years of ups and downs and finally got married happily with 3 children and a successful dancesport career.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/khanh-thi-chi-8-ty-to-chuc-giai-quoc-te-khong-dam-nhin-chong-con-thi-dau-2434239.html