Building a comprehensive athlete force towards the National Sports Festival

Athletes practice at the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center.

In order to have the best preparation for the largest national sports festival, immediately after the 9th National Sports Festival (2022) ended, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VH,TT&DL) soon made a plan to build a force of athletes to participate in the 10th National Sports Festival in 2026 and submitted it to the Provincial People's Committee.

Director of the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center Dam Van Long said: “The Center will fulfill the target of 800 athletes in 2024, 2025 and 1,000 athletes in 2026. Every year, select and send about 60 coaches and athletes of various sports to train and compete to improve their capacity, professional qualifications, and competition experience in a number of Southeast Asian, Asian, and European countries; select and send 350 coaches and athletes to train and compete at major sports centers nationwide. At the same time, regularly evaluate and classify the athlete force to have appropriate investment methods in each stage; promote investment in building sports facilities”.

With that direction, the selection of athletes for the sports teams participating in the congress is carried out strictly and scientifically according to the plan and based on the athletes' performance in national and international sports tournaments from 2021-2023. Proactively and boldly select truly talented athletes, capable of winning gold medals, to have a special investment regime in the period of 2024-2026.

The Sports Training and Competition Center also regularly sends athletes for training domestically and internationally at appropriate times to quickly improve athletes' professional qualifications, ensuring sustainability, fundamentals, and long-term strategies in athlete training. Head coaches and teams develop scientific and rigorous training programs and plans, clearly defining goals and targets in each training stage, and fulfilling requirements on organization, management, political and ideological education, and expertise for athletes. At the 10th National Sports Festival, the province strives to have 650 experts, coaches, and athletes of 35 sports participating in training and competition at the festival.

In addition, Thanh Hoa high-performance sports continues to prioritize investment in key and spearhead sports; researches hiring domestic and foreign experts with high professional qualifications and rich experience to directly train a number of spearhead sports teams. Invests in purchasing equipment and training and competition tools for the province's sports teams; expands the scale of operations and purchases some more modern sports medicine equipment to care for, monitor health, recover after training, competition and treat injuries for athletes.

Over the years, Thanh Hoa sports have not only performed well in national competitions, but also contributed many quality coaches and athletes, helping Vietnamese sports gradually improve its ranking on the regional, continental and world sports map.

In 2024, Thanh Hoa sports teams competed in 149 tournaments (including 121 national tournaments and 28 international tournaments), winning 1,010 medals of all kinds. In the first 6 months of 2025, athletes of all teams and sports participated in 51 tournaments, winning 394 medals of all kinds. Especially in the youth championships and age groups, the number of gold medals exceeded the initial target.

However, the preparation for the upcoming Thanh Hoa sports congress also has challenges when the facilities and training equipment for some sports are still lacking; investment resources are limited; competition is increasingly fierce between localities with good achievements close to the achievements of Thanh Hoa Sports Delegation at previous congresses. In addition, the streamlining of the apparatus and the merger of administrative units have also greatly affected the management and ranking of Thanh Hoa sports.

The good news for Thanh Hoa sports is that the Provincial People's Council has issued Resolution No. 03/2025/NQ-HDND dated April 9, 2025 on promulgating policies to support a number of high-performance sports activities in Thanh Hoa province, creating a breakthrough in the treatment regime for athletes and coaches, helping Thanh Hoa sports to make a stronger breakthrough.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Duy Tu said: “Thanh Hoa Sports is entering a new stage of development, integrating more deeply with regional and international sports. In the new stage of sports development, in addition to the determination to overcome difficulties, Thanh Hoa high-performance sports always focus on researching new training methods, focusing on youth training and mobilizing social resources. In particular, we will continue to pay attention to the remuneration and reward regime and gradually socialize to encourage and motivate athletes to actively participate in competitions, confidently contributing to the province's sports in particular and national sports in general. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism believes that Thanh Hoa high-performance sports will maintain its position in the leading group of the country and make a strong breakthrough at the 10th National Sports Congress in 2026".

Article and photos: Anh Tuan

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/xay-dung-luc-luong-vdv-toan-dien-nbsp-huong-toi-dai-hoi-the-thao-toan-quoc-260142.htm