Questions mount over heavy penalty for Vietnam's U21 volleyball team at Indonesia's world championship

Vietnamese players exchange during the match against Indonesia at the 2025 Women’s U21 World Volleyball Championship on Aug. 7, 2025. Photo by Volleyball World

Vietnam made their debut at the world youth tournament in Indonesia this year and impressed by beating hosts Indonesia 3-0, then defeating Serbia, Canada and Puerto Rico 3-1 each. Their only group-stage loss was a 1-3 defeat to second seed Argentina, which put them second in Group A and set up a round-of-16 clash with Turkey.

However, just after the group stage ended, FIVB announced late Tuesday that Vietnam's wins over Serbia, Canada, and Indonesia would be turned into 0-3 losses, and their 1-3 defeat to Argentina changed to 0-3. The governing body cited a player's violation of competition eligibility rules but gave no details on the athlete or the reason. That player did not compete in the Tuesday win over Puerto Rico, so the result of that match stood.

Dang Thi Hong and Nguyen Phuong Quynh were absent from the Puerto Rico game. Hong, a key scorer with 83 points, ranking third in the tournament behind Indonesia's Santi (86) and the Czech Republic's Rejmanova (85), has been a crucial part of Vietnam's success.

The penalty dropped Vietnam from second place in the group to last, forcing them into the 17th-24th classification matches instead of competing for a semifinal berth.

Potential violations

In top-level sports, common breaches of eligibility include age fraud, doping, competing while under suspension, or gender eligibility, with the latter being a particularly sensitive and controversial topic.

At the U21 World Championship, players are identified through birth certificates and passports. Usually, the organizing committee only checks basic documents, but if issues or complaints arise during the tournament, FIVB can send a subcommittee to investigate without notifying the team. Sanctions can be imposed even if teams have complied with standard procedures.

According to Vietnam Sports Administration, the FIVB's athlete eligibility regulations in this case were emergent and had not been informed to member federations beforehand.

"What is the basis for FIVB to issue additional regulations and sanction Vietnamese athletes?" the administration asked, while noting that for now the team will comply with FIVB rules, remain professional and continue competing.

On Wednesday, Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV) confirmed it is filing an official complaint under FIVB procedures and working with Vietnamese authorities to protect the rights of the athletes and the reputation of Vietnamese volleyball.

VFV has demanded clarification on the specific violation and the standards applied. If testing was involved, the federation wants to know what type of tests were conducted and whether the lab met International Olympic Committee (IOC) standards.

A VFV representative said FIVB initially took blood and urine samples from several Vietnamese athletes without explaining the purpose, while also requesting original player records for comparison.

"This didn't go against the regulations, but we considered it just a normal doping test request," he said with disappointment, adding that the heavy sanction may have been immediate because the knockout matches were scheduled the next day.

Gender eligibility questions

FIVB’s general regulations state that an athlete’s gender is certified through a birth certificate. Athletes may change gender once but must prove to the FIVB Gender Status Committee that this does not bring a competitive advantage, based on a detailed review process.

FIVB does not require mandatory gender testing like World Athletics, but it can request random tests under a process.

In Vietnam's case, the process from sample collection to sanction took less than 20 hours, an unprecedented incident in FIVB history. This has fueled skepticism among Vietnamese and Southeast Asian fans, with some drawing comparison to the case of Indonesian player Aprilia Manganang.

Manganang, 33, was renowned for her powerful play, often dominating other female players, prompting speculations about her gender. Despite complaints from the Philippines and Thailand at SEA Games, no investigation was conducted, and FIVB was even praised for defending athletes' personal freedoms.

In 2021, medical tests revealed that Manganang had hypospadias, a congenital condition that caused incomplete genital development, meaning she was biologically male. She later underwent surgery, married and had children.

"I don’t know if there is bias, but FIVB has clearly been inconsistent in handling similar cases," a Vietnamese volleyball expert said, warning that the rapid sanction could harm Vietnam’s young athletes and set a troubling precedent.

Vietnamese players during the clash with Argentina at the 2025 Women’s U21 World Volleyball Championship on Aug. 11, 2025. Photo by Volleyball World

A representative from the Department of Science and Sports Medicine at Vietnam’s National Sports Training Center noted that even determining XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes is not always straightforward. Such determinations must be made carefully due to their significant impact on athletes and nations.

IOC medical experts and federations in athletics, swimming and boxing have acknowledged that anatomy, hormones and chromosomes may not always align. For instance, a woman with XY chromosomes, no uterus, abdominal genitals and high testosterone may still be legally classified female. The UN estimates that 0.05–1.7% of the global population is intersex.

Gender eligibility has been especially contentious in recent years, including at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the cases of Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu Ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif.

Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Championships for high testosterone levels. The International Boxing Association later confirmed she had XY chromosomes, recommending her exclusion from Paris. But the IOC allowed her to compete based on passport and medical documents, standards also used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and she went on to win gold in the women’s 66kg category.