Paris (VNA) – Vietnamese swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang and badminton player Nguyen Thuy Linh will start competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics on July 29.
Specifically, Hoang will compete in the men's 800m freestyle qualification round and Linh will play against Australian player Tiffany Ho in the women’s singles qualification round.
At the 32nd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 32) last year, Hoang brought home three golds and one bronze. While at the SEA Games 31, he took five golds and broke two SEA Games' records.
At the 18th Asian Games (ASIAD 18) in 2018, Hoang won a silver medal in the 1,500m freestyle event. The same year, when attending the Youth Olympics in Argentina, he took a gold medal in the 800m freestyle category.
Hoang's road to Paris was paved with both triumph and adversity. At ASIAD 19 last year, he clinched a bronze medal in the men's 800m freestyle event, punching his ticket to the Olympics with a time of 7:51.44.
At the Paris Olympics, Hoang will compete in his two favourite events - the 1,500m freestyle and the 800m freestyle. For his second time at the Olympics, the swimmer from Quang Binh province aims to surpass his own professional index to achieve the best results and seek opportunities to enter the finals.
Meanwhile, Linh - the number one female player of Vietnam - is in Group K with No 11 Beiwen Zhang of the US and No 80 Tiffany Ho of Australia.
The predictions are that Linh, world No 26, and Zhang will have meet almost no resistance winning over Ho. Linh secured a 2-0 win over Ho at the Spain Masters in March.
The direct match between Linh and Zhang will decide the group winner.
Although Linh is 15 below Zhang in the world rankings, the Germany Open first runner-up is at the same level with her.
In their latest meet last year, Linh beat Zhang 2-1 at the Arctic Open's last 16 round in Finland.
This is Linh's second straight Olympics. In Tokyo in 2021, her competition ended at the group round./.
