A decorated decade for Vietnam’s number one swimmer

During her 10-year professional career, Vien became a legend of Vietnamese swimming and one of the most successful athletes in SEA Games history with 25 gold medals. Her other accolades include a bronze and silver at Asian Swimming Championships, two bronze at Asian Games, a Youth Olympic gold, and a Swimming World Cup silver.

She also dominated domestic tournaments with dozens of gold medals and multiple records broken. The 25-year-old is also the only Vietnamese swimmer to take part in three consecutive Olympic events.

Vien started her first swimming lessons when she was five and quickly progressed. At 15, she won 10 gold medals at the national swimming championship for different ages. Vien participated in her first SEA Games in 2011 and claimed two silvers. A year later, a 16-year-old Vien competed in her first Olympics.

At SEA Games 2013, Vien started to shine, winning three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal while breaking two records of the event. After 54 years, a female swimmer from Vietnam finally became a gold medalist.

In 2014, Vien won a gold medal at Youth Olympics and two bronze at Asian Games.

2015 was the most successful year for Vien. She won eight individual gold medals and broke seven records at SEA Games. She went on to claim two silver and a bronze at FINA Swimming World Cup.

After an unsuccessful Olympic tournament in 2016, Vien continued to dominate SEA Games 29 with eight gold, two silver and three more broken records.

"I have won many medals and broken multiple records at SEA Games, but I won't stop moving forward. If I'm satisfied with what I have achieved, I'll be a failure. I always leave my achievements behind and keep going further," Vien said.

At SEA Games 2019, Vien wasn't on her best form but still won six gold and two silver medals.

Coach Dang Anh Tuan played an important role in Vien’s successful career. He started mentoring Vien in 2010.

With her achievements, Vien has become an icon of Vietnamese sports in the past decade. She was awarded the first class Labor Order in 2019.

Besides her accolades and success, Vien faced many challenges during her career like staying far from home for many years, only having seven days off per annum and 30 minutes of talking to her family on the phone each week, no social media, no makeup.

After parting ways with coach Tuan in 2019, Vien's form started to drop. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Vien wasn't able to train or compete overseas for over a year, which caused her trouble at Tokyo Olympics.

Recently, Vien decided to retire so she could spend more time on herself and family. However, sports officials are encouraging Vien to continue and compete for Vietnam in SEA Games 31 in May next year. A year ago, Vien also planned to retire but decided to keep going.