Bắc giang
Martial artist Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy: from village bamboo ramparts to world gold medal
The power of a champion
Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy was born in 1998 in Chau Son village, Ngoc Chau commune, Tan Yen district. Her parents are farmers with three children. Thuy is the second child.
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Wushu artist Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy. |
As a child, little Thuy was skinny and often sick. She loved martial arts and often played marbles, archery and fencing. Seeing brothers and sisters studying martial arts in the district, Thuy asked her parents to let her practice martial arts to improve her health.
Discovering her young student's martial arts talent, in 2008, coaches at the provincial Sports Training and Competition Center chose Thuy to join the provincial martial arts team at the age of 10. Two years later, the center's leadership moved Thuy from taolu (performance) event to sanda (combat).
With the guidance and tutoring of the coaching staff, Thuy has affirmed her ability by winning one gold medal in the National Youth Traditional Martial Arts Championship and one silver in the National Wushu Championship 2012, at the age of 14. In consecutive years 2013, 2014 and 2015, she was the owner of many gold medals at national-level tournaments, appreciated by experts for her competition level.
Since 2016, Thuy has been chosen to join the national Wushu team. Over the past eight years, the young female martial artist has increasingly matured professionally, becoming the pillar and the "golden girl" of the Vietnamese Wushu, who has been present in all domestic, Southeast Asian, Asia and world arenas.
Martial arts lovers greatly admire her when she owns a huge collection of prestigious medals. Since 2012, Thuy has won nearly 20 gold medals in national championships and youth tournaments: one gold at SEA Games 31; two silver and one bronze at Asian tournaments; one gold, four silver and two bronze in the World Junior Wushu Championships, the Sanda World Cup, and the World Wushu Championships.
Sweat, injuries
Behind the medals are her sweat and even injuries. Due to the heavy training intensity, many times while sleeping, her muscles twitched, Thu Thuy felt like her body was falling into a state of unconsciousness. Not only did she have to train hard, in tournaments that did not have a 56-kg category, she had to "squeeze weight" by exercising and following a diet to join.
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Wushu artist Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy (right) competes in the final match for the gold medal with her Indian rival at the World Wushu Championships in the US in November 2023. |
In 2023, the Bac Giang girl won a bronze medal at the 19th Asian Games (ASIAD 19) held in China in October. One month later, she participated in the World Wushu Championships 2023 in the US - a high-class arena that gathered more than 500 fighters from 72 countries and territories. In this tournament, because there was no 56-kg event, Thuy was forced to compete in the 60-kg event and set the goal of winning a medal.
Despite many difficulties, with three convincing wins in the qualifying round, Thuy was present in the final match for the gold medal. As a fate, her opponent was the Indian female fighter, who had defeated her in the semi-finals at ASIAD 19 and bagged the gold.
Learning from experience in the ASIAD 19 match, Thuy adjusted her tactics, attacked aggressively, and beat the opponent with a score of 2-1, winning the gold medal and bringing the glory to the Fatherland. This is the first World Wushu Championship gold medal in her career.
Bui Ngoc Anh, Director of the provincial Sports Training and Competition Center, said that "The bronze medal at ASIAD 19 and the gold medal at the World Wushu Championships 2023 that Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy won not only affirm her class as a professional athlete in the continental and world arenas, but are also the honour and pride of her hometown of Bac Giang."
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