Extensive planning, coordinated programs bear golden fruit
Vietnam emerged as the winner of the 22nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in terms of medals. The success in securing the championship for the first time came down to the long, hard preparation of their athletes. Dang Lam Son, the assistant to the Minister of Sports, spoke with The Jakarta Post's Musthofid on the sidelines of the Games in Hanoi. Below are the highlights of the interview.
Question: Vietnamese athletes have performed very well, gold after gold has been won at almost every venue of the competition. How long did you prepare the athletes and what went into the athletes' recruitment?
Answer: Vietnam has been trying to recruit and train the best athletes available for over ten years now.
Q: How do you work out your training program?
A: Since Vietnam came back to the SEA Games in 1989, we have been preparing for this special event for some time. We called it the 'Target Program' for the athletes.
Q: What specific programs have you have laid down to intensively train for this year's SEA Games?
A: First of all, we have specialized sports schools all around the country. We have the best teachers and coaches of respective sports that we can find. We pick up most of our potential students from the public schools and hold national training tryouts.
Q: How many sports schools are there?
A: We have one in every province, plus, in big cities we have two or three, and there are a total of 16,000 students at those specialized schools.
Q: At what age do they join the specialized schools?
A: It depends on the sport. For example, chess will begin from 6-years-old. In gymnastics, they are normally about 6 or 7, when they start training. The same goes for swimming.
Q: Are those schools controlled by the central government?
A: Yes, they are run and organized by the Ministry of Sports. But it also depends on the respective provincial authority as part of their own training program.
Q: What is the next program after athletes 'graduate' from those schools?
A: They are then recruited into special national training centers. We have many training centers all over the country, and in one center there are many kinds of sports. When they reach a certain level of performance, we push them up further by sending them abroad to train and compete or bring in top foreign coaches from different countries for them.
Q: What do you expect from the ten-year training program?
A: The aim of the program is to make Vietnam consistently one of the most powerful countries in the region and to prepare Vietnam to become the most challenging country in certain sports in Asia and the world.
Q: Referring back to the ongoing SEA Games, how long did you have a focused training program?
A: The focused training program began in 2000. We began sending athletes to other countries like China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Q: How much did that program cost?
A: We can't provide the exact figures right now, but we estimated it to be billions of Vietnamese dong to have this training program. We set aside a budget of around 500 billion dong (approximately US$32.03 million) to train athletes for and to organize the SEA Games.
Q: How do you motivate the athletes to perform well in the SEA Games? Are there any cash bonuses promised for successful athletes?
A: Yes. We provide 15 million dong for gold medalists, 10 million dong for silver medalists and 7 million dong for bronze medalists. In addition, the medal winners will get bonuses from sponsors and other companies in the athletes' respective provinces.
Q: What was your ministry's first priority when Vietnam was appointed as the host of the 22nd SEA Games?
A: The first priority of the Vietnamese government was to build the infrastructure. We built the roads and constructed the facilities for the SEA Games.
Q: Where did the money come from?
A: The bulk of it came from the state budget. Local people also made contributions. And a small part of the funding came from private organizations.
Q: What do the government and people expect from the organization of the SEA Games?
A: We hope that the SEA Games will fully depict the motto: Solidarity and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
Q: Could you explain what message the motto carries with it?
A: The 11 countries in the SEA Games will join hands to become one of strongest organizations in sports in the world.
Q: What is your next program after this SEA Games?
A: We will embark on a campaign called "Sports For All". Everyone must be involved in a sport so we can organize even bigger events in the future.
Q: Do you have another 10-year program after this SEA Games?
A: We have another 10-year program, a 20-year program, etc.
Q: That will definitely cost some money. How will you tackle the financial cost of such large-scale sports programs in the future?
A: We do believe that with our economic development rate of 7 percent annually we will be able to pay for it.
Q: Vietnam has been successful both as hosts and sporting performers. What do you attribute these successes to?
A: The success belongs to all of the Vietnamese people.