Vietnam’s disappointment at the Olympics and the results of Southeast Asian rivals
Unprecedented in nearly 30 years, Vietnam has gone through two consecutive Olympics without any achievements, while Southeast Asian opponents have shown significant progress.
In the men’s 61kg weightlifting event in Paris on August 7, Trinh Van Vinh fell in all three attempts and was eliminated early. In his final attempt, he lifted the weight over his head but did not have enough strength to maintain his balance, causing him to fall backwards.
Vinh’s presentation reflected Vietnam’s efforts at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the team fell short of its prize-winning target.
Just a year earlier, Vietnam had surpassed the medal tally at the 32nd Ocean Games in Cambodia, winning a total of 355 medals, including 136 golds. Vietnam won 28 more golds than Thailand, marking the second consecutive time it has beaten the Ocean Games leader.
At the 2022 Asian Games, postponed to 2023 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Vietnam ranked 6th in Southeast Asia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vietnam was the first country among the six strongest countries in Southeast Asia not to win any awards.
Not only did Vietnam fall far behind other Southeast Asian countries in this year’s rankings, it also showed signs of decline compared to previous times.
The peak of Vietnamese sports at the Olympics was in 2016, when shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh won a gold medal and a silver medal. That year, Vietnam had the largest number of athletes participating in the world arena, 23. Since then, the number of athletes has gradually decreased.
Vietnam returned to the Olympics in 1988, but failed to win a medal on three occasions before female taekwondo athlete Tran Hieu Ngan won a silver medal at Sydney 2000. The number of Vietnamese athletes qualifying for the Olympics increased until 2016.
After Vinh’s victory in Rio de Janeiro, Vietnam rose to third place in Southeast Asia, behind only Thailand and Indonesia who won Olympic gold medals.
Vietnam, however, interestingly returned without a medal starting around 1996 at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. During this period, the Philippines won three Olympic gold medals.
At Paris 2024, Southeast Asian nations won a total of 15 medals, including five golds. The Philippines won two golds thanks to Carlos Yulo’s double in the acrobatics event. Thailand won gold with taekwondo athlete Panipak Wongpattanakit successfully defending her title in the women’s 49kg event.
Indonesia interestingly won gold outside of badminton, with Veddriq Leonardo in speed climbing and Rizki Juniansyah in men’s 73kg weightlifting.
Weightlifting overall has brought the most Olympic medals to Southeast Asian nations, with a total of 38 medals, including seven golds. All three Thai weightlifters who participated in the Paris Games won medals – two silvers and one bronze.
This rivalry is divided by weight class, which suits the more modest physiques of Southeast Asian athletes. Vietnam has also won two Olympic weightlifting medals, a silver by Hoang Anh Tuan in 2008 and a bronze by Tran Le Quoc Toan four years later. At the 32nd Adrift Games, Vietnam won four weightlifting gold medals, second only to Indonesia’s five, but this feat has not been repeated at the Olympics.
