Remember at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Nguyen Thi That lost her ticket at the last minute because the International Cycling Federation changed the scoring method. It is worth noting that at that time, Nguyen Thi That was in good form and was highly appreciated by experts. From the above lesson, the Vietnam Cycling-Motorcycle Sports Federation and Nguyen Thi That personally had a thorough and methodical preparation plan for the campaign to compete for tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Sharing with reporters of the People's Army Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu, General Secretary of the Vietnam Cycling-Motorcycle Sports Federation, said: “Nguyen Thi That's achievements as the Asian champion and winning a ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics were already in the calculation. We proposed two options: If That defends the championship, she will have a ticket to the Olympics as a special ticket; if That does not win the championship, she will try to earn as many bonus points as possible to improve the ranking of the Vietnamese cycling team. “If we just get into the top 45 in the world, Vietnamese cyclists will have a place at the Olympics and this goal is feasible. We have already won the ticket so we don’t have to worry about accumulating points anymore.”

Nguyen Thi That (middle) is the first Vietnamese athlete to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo: Thaicycling

Nguyen Thi That will not think about the 2024 Paris Olympics yet because the immediate goal of this racer is to compete for a gold medal at the 2022 Asian Games (ASIAD 19) held in China in September 2023. However, there is still a big gap from the Asian championship to the ASIAD gold medal. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu analyzed: “If the Asian championship race is 109km long, has few slopes and is flat near the finish line, the route at ASIAD 19 is 141km long and has two steep slopes near the finish line. Nguyen Thi That is not strong in climbing slopes, so she is expected to face many difficulties. Moreover, the ASIAD 19 playground only allows each country to have a maximum of 2 racers participating in the women's road event, so the ability to coordinate and support each other between athletes is more difficult. As the reigning Asian champion, That will attract the attention of his opponents, and the possibility of competing for the gold medal at the 19th ASIAD will become much more difficult."

After the 2023 Asian Road Cycling Championship, Nguyen Thi That returned to the Israel Premier Tech Roland Club (Switzerland) to train and compete. It is known that the Vietnam Cycling and Motor Sports Federation has submitted to the General Department of Sports and Physical Training a plan to send Nguyen Thi That and some teammates to participate in the World Cycling Championship, and at the same time participate in training in China before the 19th ASIAD to gain experience and familiarize themselves with the racetrack.

At the 2023 Asian Road Cycling Championship, in addition to Nguyen Thi That, the Vietnamese cycling team also won 2 gold medals (Thach Thi Ngoc Thao and Nguyen Thi Be Hong) and 1 bronze medal (Pham Le Xuan Loc) in the youth events. In recognition of the above achievements, the Amateur Cycling Committee of the Vietnam Cycling and Motor Sports Federation awarded 50 million VND for each gold medal and 10 million VND for each bronze medal. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu said: “After about 30 minutes of competition at the Asian tournament, the prize money was transferred to the winning racer. Recently, the Federation has been facing many difficulties in mobilizing sponsorship, so the support of the Amateur Cycling Committee deserves to be commended. In addition, we also called on a business to support training and competition equipment for the Vietnamese cycling team. The above sentiments have been and are contributing to encouraging the spirit of Vietnamese racers to be more excited and confident towards conquering new goals."

Chief