Cyclist Nguyen Thi That (centre) wins gold medal at 2023 Asian Road Cycling Championships in Thailand, booking her ticket to Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. This honour was brought about by the gold medal that she had successfully defended at the 2023 Asian Road Cycling Championships in Thailand on June 12.
With strong support from her teammates, the Vietnamese rider successfully surpassed rivals from China, the Republic of Korea, Japan and the host nation to finish first in the women’s 109km race.
It is the third time the cyclist from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang has taken the champions podium at a continental tournament, after that in 2018 and 2022.
She also reached the pinnacle in cycling, becoming the first Vietnamese cyclist to compete in an Olympics tournament. This is a worthy reward for That after her tireless efforts.
That was born in 1993, but has been a cyclist for 14 years. Currently, in the rankings of the International Cycling Union (UCI), That is in the top 40, and is the highest ranked Asian athlete to date.
The athlete started competing for the long-distance race at the An Giang Television Cup in 2010. She won the bronze medal at the 2013 SEA Games - her first major international tournament.
A year later, she won the ASIAD silver medal in the Republic of Korea in 2014, and then five consecutive SEA Games gold medals in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
In 2019, That joined the Belgian racing team Lotto-Soudal Ladies, becoming the first Vietnamese cyclist to compete for a European team.
Recently, on April 9, 2023, the Vietnamese cyclist had an impressive victory in the second stage of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorns Cup Women's Tour of Thailand.
She finished the 82.2-km race held in Rayong province - about 140km to the southeast of Bangkok - first with a time of 1 hour 58.48 minutes.
That is currently the best cyclist in Vietnam, and is still hunting for more titles. Her next goal is to win a gold medal for Vietnam at the 19th Asian Games, which will be held in Hangzhou (China) from September 23 to October 8 this year.
That’s honour is expected to be a push for Vietnamese athletes to succeed in their journey to book their ticket to the biggest sports festival on the planet, scheduled for July 26-August 11, 2024.
Vietnam is striving to have about 15 athletes to attend this tournament.
Paris will host next year’s Olympics. It will be the third time that the French capital has hosted the Summer Games, but the most recent edition in the city was exactly 100 years ago, in 1924. The 33rd Summer Olympic Games – or formally, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad – will run from July 26 until August 11, 2024. As is tradition, the official opening ceremony will take place on July 26.
Over 10,000 athletes from 206 nations are expected to take part across 329 events, representing more than 28 sports.
The Summer Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent Games were held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan./.
VNA
