Farewell to the 'iron lady' of Vietnamese badminton

Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Badminton Federation Hoang Thi Thu Ha said that Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien is called by many people as the "iron lady" of Vietnamese badminton because of her strict and tough way of working for athletes and for the development of the badminton movement in Ho Chi Minh City as well as Vietnam.

Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien (far right) at the 2012 London Olympics

The mark of Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien in more than 20 years of participating in badminton is to contribute to the rise of the player Nguyen Tien Minh from a nameless position to the 5th place in the world with the peak being the bronze medal at the 2013 World Championship. He is also the only athlete of Vietnam to date to have qualified for 4 Olympic Games. That is a historic success for Vietnamese badminton that would be difficult to achieve without Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien.

Thanks to her good diplomacy , mastery of expertise and rules, and especially working with enthusiasm and burning passion, Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien, in her role as Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Badminton Federation, has convinced leaders at all levels and connected sponsors to invest specifically in Nguyen Tien Minh as well as other talents. Thanks to that, Tien Minh has received support from good experts from Indonesia as well as good treatment. To give Tien Minh and other Vietnamese players the opportunity to compete internationally right at home, Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien and her colleagues joined hands to rebuild the Vietnam Open International Badminton Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City since 2006, which has been held 19 times with an increasingly large scale.

Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien (far left), who has made many contributions to badminton in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam

When she was still healthy, Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien also used her own money to accompany Nguyen Tien Minh and the Vietnamese badminton team on many tours. With Ms. Lien, badminton athletes do not have to worry much about food, accommodation, competition procedures, etc. Ms. Lien also created good relationships with the World Badminton Federation, the Asian Badminton Federation, and took the lead in training international referees for Vietnamese badminton. Thanks to that, Vietnam now has many high-class referees participating in the management of the world's leading badminton tournaments.

There was a time when she quit badminton, but then her passion and dedication made Ms. Huynh Ngoc Lien come back and share: "I still owe a lot to badminton. If I compare badminton in Ho Chi Minh City to a friend, I cannot abandon you when you are in trouble."

After a period of illness, the "iron lady" of badminton in Ho Chi Minh City, Huynh Ngoc Lien, has just passed away at the age of 73, leaving many people in mourning. Vietnam's No. 1 male badminton player, Le Duc Phat, shared emotionally: "I greet you and thank you for everything. You are no longer in pain, you can rest. I hope you will always follow and support me. I will try harder."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vinh-biet-nguoi-dan-ba-thep-cua-cau-long-viet-nam-185241130140154792.htm