PARALYMPIC RIO 2016: A DREAM COME TRUE

Vo Thanh Tung brilliantly wins a silver medal at Paralympic 2016.

Mission accomplished

Vo Thanh Tung is the name expected to win the first swimming medal for the Vietnamese team of athletes with disabilities at Paralympic Rio. Coming to the Paralympics, Vo Thanh Tung carried high hopes because he holds the Asian record in his strongest event, the 50m freestyle (S5 disability class), with a time of 34.43 seconds. And in the final, despite a poor start and ranking only fifth over the first 20m, he then surged ahead and won the silver medal with a time of 33.94 seconds. Thanh Tung won the silver medal and achieved the swimming team's goal of winning a medal for people with disabilities in Vietnam.

Tung's achievement also helped the Vietnamese swimmer beat his own Asian record of 34.43 seconds, set at the European Open Swimming Championships for people with disabilities a few months earlier. Tung's time was only slightly behind that of the legendary athlete Daniel Dias of host country Brazil, who won the gold medal with a time of 32.78 seconds. Third in this event was Roy Perkins (USA) with a time of 34.42 seconds.

Although his achievement had been predicted, it was truly a success beyond Vo Thanh Tung's expectations, as he had won the gold medal at the 2016 European Open Swimming Championships for people with disabilities in Portugal in May.

The name Vo Thanh Tung carried high hopes at this Paralympics because everyone still vividly remembers his impressive feat two years ago. At the Asian Para Games 2014, Vo Thanh Tung won five gold medals in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 200m individual medley. At the 2015 World Championships, with a time of 34.88 seconds, Thanh Tung won the bronze medal in the 50m freestyle, S5 disability class, beating the Paralympic A standard by more than four seconds and equalling the Paralympic silver medal.

With what he has shown, his dream of winning a medal at Paralympic 2016 has come true. Now, with the most relaxed mindset, his chances of continuing to compete successfully and bringing home more medals in other events in the coming days are well founded. In the events to come, the 50m backstroke (16 September) and the 100m freestyle (18 September), Thanh Tung's times are also close to the top three. That means one, or even several, Paralympic medals in the next swimming events are well within his reach.

Reward for relentless effort

Born completely able-bodied, a polio epidemic at the age of four took away Vo Thanh Tung's chance of living as an ordinary person. At that time there was no polio vaccine, and his family was in difficult circumstances, so his legs became impaired, gradually wasting away and no longer able to walk normally. From then on, he had to get used to life as a person with a disability. As his family lived on a boat and worked on the river, his father taught him to swim, with the first aim simply being that he could save himself if there was a flood or if he fell into the river.

Thanh Tung's road to success in swimming began in the rivers flowing around his home. That was where his sporting talent was nurtured, but to keep alive the passion that ran in his blood, Thanh Tung had to accept many sacrifices. Not only did he overcome the everyday shame of a person with a disability, Thanh Tung's resilience was also shown in his determination to rise up and live well with the community.

At 18, Tung went to Can Tho City to study Electronics and Telecommunications (in-service university programme), hoping to be of help to his parents later. To pay his daily expenses, Tung had to work in coffee shops or take whatever work he was offered. After a period of hard study, Tung finally received his degree. But with his impaired legs, wherever Tung took his application, the office shook its head and refused him. Not at all discouraged, Thanh Tung decided to learn mobile phone repair to earn a living.

His career as an athlete came to Tung quite by chance, and the opportunity that opened a new chapter in his life and tied him to success in swimming came in 2005. That year, Can Tho City announced recruitment for the sports team, but because he had no money to pay tuition fees or buy training equipment, Tung did not register. Fortunately, at that time Tung was lucky enough to meet Mr Bui Thanh Tam, a sports coach at the Can Tho City Intermediate School of Physical Education and Sports, and was taken on by him after passing a few trial swims. Tung was invited to compete for the Can Tho City sports movement for people with disabilities. And after only one month of training, Tung won two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2005 national sports championships for people with disabilities.

Winning so soon after such a short time was the motivation for Tung to keep trying harder in training. Almost all of Tung's time was devoted to perfecting his swimming technique. Since then, achievements, medals and records have followed one after another.

In 2009, competing for the first time for the Vietnamese swimming team for people with disabilities, Tung broke Southeast Asian records twice. From then until now, Tung has had almost no rivals in the region. Gold medals at continental level, and especially the feat of winning five gold medals at the Asian Para Games 2014… laid the groundwork for Thanh Tung to make his mark at this Paralympics.

In sport, to succeed, besides passion, training effort and luck, talent is also needed, and Thanh Tung possesses that decisive factor. The feat that is Vo Thanh Tung has truly shaken the blue lanes for those who rise above fate. Those tireless efforts have been worthily rewarded with a medal at a top-level arena like Paralympic Rio.

 Khanh Vy

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