After ASIAD 19 in Hangzhou, where Viet Nam won three gold medals, Vietnamese sports continue to identify key disciplines such as shooting, archery, weightlifting, athletics, cycling, rowing, karate, and sepak takraw as the foundation for making further progress at the continental level. However, in the context of increasingly fierce competition at the ASIAD, the gap in standards between Vietnamese sports and the stronger sporting nations in Asia remains considerable.
Therefore, the goal of winning five gold medals at this year’s ASIAD in Japan is not only a professional matter for the national teams, but also reflects the capacity for long-term investment, the organisation of training, and the determination of the entire national sports system.
A notable point is that the government has this time shown clear concern for high-performance sports. The decision approving the programme for developing key sports disciplines for the 2026–2045 period demonstrates that investment orientation has been elevated into a national strategy. The objective is to maintain a position within the top 20 at the ASIAD and move towards winning Olympic medals, with the longer-term ambition of hosting the 2038 ASIAD.
Requirements concerning the review of potential athletes, an increase in international training camps, and the building of systems for sports medicine, psychology, nutrition, and data analysis show that sports management thinking is shifting from the traditional subsidised model towards a modern scientific approach. The fact that leaders of the Viet Nam Sports Administration have directly worked with national teams ahead of ASIAD 20 also reflects that performance pressure has been specifically assigned and implemented early in order to ensure the best preparation.
Nevertheless, the biggest gaps in Vietnamese sports today still lie in two core factors: facilities and high-level coaching personnel. For many years, a number of national teams have continued to train in outdated stadiums and training venues, with incomplete equipment and recovery conditions that fail to meet international standards.
The specialised equipment in Olympic sports such as shooting, archery, and track cycling is extremely expensive, but investment capacity remains limited, making it difficult for athletes to access modern training technologies like their Asian rivals. Even sports that have previously won ASIAD gold medals, such as karate and others, are facing increasingly strong competition as many countries accelerate investment. In high-performance sport, the difference between winning a gold medal and being eliminated early sometimes lies solely in training efficiency, which directly depends on training conditions and the quality of experts.
Reality shows that many leading sporting nations in Asia are willing to spend huge budgets to hire top coaches and experts from around the world. In Viet Nam, football is a clear example, with South Korean coaches previously earning incomes as high as 100,000 USD per month.
Meanwhile, in most Olympic sports, remuneration for foreign coaches and experts remains low, often under 10,000 USD per month, making it very difficult to attract top-level coaches who have worked with national teams competing at the ASIAD or Olympics. Without changing investment thinking, Vietnamese sports will struggle to create breakthroughs through athletes’ determination and effort alone.
Therefore, the target of five gold medals at ASIAD 20 can only become reality if Vietnamese sports accept a stronger and more substantive wave of investment. What is needed is a concentration of budgets on sports with clear medal-winning potential, along with the building of a training ecosystem that meets international standards.
National sports centres need upgrading in terms of recovery science, motion data systems and specialised equipment rather than merely carrying out cosmetic renovations. At the same time, financial mechanisms must be flexible enough to hire capable coaches and experts, create opportunities for domestic coaches to access advanced training technologies, and send key athletes for long-term training in elite sporting environments.
Success at the ASIAD is no longer simply a competition of individual talent but has become a challenge for the entire national sports investment system. If the “bottlenecks” in facilities and expert quality can be resolved, the goal of five gold medals is not too far out of reach.
However, if old limitations continue to persist, Vietnamese sports will find it difficult to move beyond its own shadow in the Asian arena. The reality of many tournaments has shown that limitations in sports investment budgets could be addressed in the short term by focusing special mechanisms on nine key sports, rather than maintaining the current scattered investment approach.
