It is not the lack of love for sports among the mass public but the instability of the sportive career in Vietnam that has discouraged people from pursuing athleticism as their primary profession.
After around ten years playing for the national teams at international tournaments, many famous athletes have had to earn their living by doing such side jobs as selling bread or fruit juice.
The former women’s football (soccer) goalkeeper Kim Hong once sold bread. Athletics player and coach Nguyen Thi Nu was assigned to plant grass in stadiums. Former football midfielder Quoc Vuong worked as a porter.
Other athletes have been working as motorbike keepers and shop owners after retirement.
As a result, more people have realized that they are unable to afford to make athleticism their primary career and thus keep away from training for athletic achievements.
What they opt for now is to play amateur sports to improve their physical condition and to relax after work.
In short, the very reasons that have deterred many people from becoming professional athletes are low salaries and an uncertain future.
A vacuum in sports
In the 1950s and 1960s, Vietnam had famous table tennis players like Mai Van Hoa and Le Van Tiet, who ranked at the top in Asia then.
After them, Vu Manh Cuong, Tran Tuan Quynh, Dinh Quang Linh, and Doan Kien Quoc were big names in Southeast Asia.
And now, Vietnam almost achieves nothing at regional table tennis tournaments.
From 2009 till now, Vietnam has gained no table tennis medal at Southeast Asian Games competitions.
Besides the gap in the skills and knowledge of elite stars then and now, a contradiction has appeared when the sportive achievement of professional players has gone on the decline but the love for sports from the mass public has remained as burning as before.
A friendly tournament with only 18 matches once held at Hoa Lu Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 attracted thousands of fans although the facility has no stands for them.
Nguyen Trong Truc, general secretary of the HCMC Table Tennis Federation, admitted that more and more parents wish to send their children to play table tennis but most refuse to let them pursue it as a profession.
There is a fact that a table tennis grassroots tournament organized by the forum www.bongban.org, which is like a community club, can be watched by more fans than a national championship held by officials.
It proves that sports officials have to take responsibility for the problem, especially when the love for sports from the public has never gone down.
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