Finding a way to excel at the Olympics and ASIAD

Lean to improve efficiency

In recent days, the Sports industry has also witnessed a strong change in organizational structure following the general trend of leanness - compactness - strength to ensure effectiveness, efficiency and performance.

The national track and field team and many other teams need more investment to achieve their goals at the Olympics and ASIAD in the coming time. Photo: Y Van

In particular, after the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a Decision on the Regulations on functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure for the Vietnam Sports Administration from March 11, 2025, the Vietnam Sports Administration will have 1 High-Performance Sports Department. Previously, the Vietnam Sports Administration had 2 units managing and providing professional advice on high-performance sports, including High-Performance Sports Department 1 and High-Performance Sports Department 2. In fact, before 2014, the Sports industry only had one High-Performance Sports Department. In 2014, it was divided into two departments: High-Performance Sports Department 1 (later changed to High-Performance Sports Department 1) and High-Performance Sports Department 2 (later changed to High-Performance Sports Department 2). People in the industry were also familiar with the previous organizational structure, so they easily accepted the recent change in organizational structure.

As explained by insiders, regardless of the organizational structure, it is still necessary to do a good job of advising the leaders of the Vietnam Sports Administration to clarify the path for high-performance sports nationwide. The most important thing is to show the effectiveness of this in the coming time. Meanwhile, also from March 11, 2025, a series of former National Sports Training Centers will also have new names with clearer functions and tasks. In particular, the Hanoi National Sports Training Center has been renamed the National High-Level Athlete Training Center. The Ho Chi Minh City National Sports Training Center has been renamed the National Sports Training Center. The Da Nang National Sports Training Center has been renamed the National Young Athlete Training Center. All of these changes bring the expectation that there will be positive changes in the coming time when everyone has a clearer role and job.

And that is also the basis for hoping for a breakthrough and strong rise of Vietnamese sports in the Olympic and ASIAD arenas - an issue that has been mentioned for a long time and seems to have no way out. It is no coincidence that in the past 3 years, the Sports industry has organized many seminars related to developing achievements at the Olympics and ASIAD. Also on March 28, the Vietnam Sports Department will organize a seminar to give opinions on the Program for developing key sports in preparation for the Olympics and ASIAD in the period of 2026-2046. At this seminar, the issue of science and technology applied to training and competition will be mentioned a lot, considered a breakthrough point of Vietnamese sports.

Must have resources

Head of the Department of High Performance Sports (Vietnam Sports Administration) Hoang Quoc Vinh once shared that the achievements of Vietnamese athletes at the upcoming Olympics and ASIADs are always a difficult problem for Vietnamese sports. Professionals and managers really do not want to see unstable achievements, ups and downs at the Olympics and ASIADs. Looking back at the achievements of the two most recent ASIADs, Vietnamese athletes won 7 gold medals, of which 4 were won in the 2018 Games and 3 were won in 2023. In the Olympic arena, the achievements of Vietnamese sports are not really stable. At the 2016 Olympics, Vietnam won 1 gold medal, 1 silver medal in shooting, ranking 48th overall. But in the two most recent Olympics (Tokyo Olympics 2020, Paris Olympics 2024), the Vietnamese sports delegation was "empty-handed", not winning any medals.

Therefore, the Vietnam Sports Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045 issued by the Government, has mentioned the core issues and goals of Vietnamese sports in the coming time, including ensuring progress at these Games. Accordingly, by 2030, Vietnamese sports will regularly maintain their position in the top 3 delegations at the SEA Games and in the top 20 delegations at the Asian Games - ASIAD (winning from 5 to 7 gold medals); have medals at the Olympics and Paralympics. Orientation to 2045, high-performance sports will regularly maintain their position in the top two delegations at the SEA Games, in the top 15 delegations at the ASIAD (winning at least 10 gold medals), and in the top 50 delegations at the Olympics (winning at least 1 gold medal).

Currently, during the days of celebrating Vietnam Sports Day, the Sports sector has developed a Project to implement the Vietnam Sports Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045. In particular, 17 sports have been identified for key investment, including swimming, athletics, shooting, gymnastics, weightlifting, fencing, boxing, taekwondo, cycling, badminton, archery, judo, wrestling, rowing (Olympic group) and wushu, sepak takraw, karate (ASIAD group).

After determining the number of events, the most important thing is still to find resources to invest in athletes in the above key events. Thereby, ensuring that athletes enjoy superior nutrition and medical care, as well as benefit more from scientific and technological achievements in training and competition. Head of the High Performance Sports Department Hoang Quoc Vinh shared that the workshop on March 28 was an opportunity to clarify the application of science and technology, especially artificial intelligence in training and educating athletes. Most importantly, there must be resources from state budget and socialized sources to turn the goals at the Olympics and ASIAD in the coming time into reality. Only then will we not waste valuable contributions from the workshops, so that the workshops are not organized "for fun".

And only then can we hope that the 80th anniversary of Vietnam Sports Day next year will have specific, positive results, starting with streamlining and clarifying the functions of the Sports industry from today.

The most important task in 2025

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has set a task to be completed in 2025, which is to develop and submit for approval the Program for developing key sports to prepare for participation in the Olympics and ASIAD in the period 2026 - 2046. This is also a step to implement the Strategy for developing Vietnam's Sports and Physical Training to 2030, with a vision to 2045. ( Minh Khue )

Source: https://cand.com.vn/the-thao/tim-loi-vuon-minh-o-olympic-asiad-i763179/