Introduction
Hoàng Xuân Vinh is a Vietnamese sport shooter, known as the first and only Vietnamese athlete to date to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games. He was born in Hà Nội and has been attached to the sport of shooting.
Career
Before achieving glory, Hoàng Xuân Vinh was not really successful at regional shooting competitions. According to coach Nguyễn Thị Nhung, he was once regarded as a "sinner" for losing the gold medal at Asiad 2012 and the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics on his final shots. To achieve his historic result, this shooter went through many failures and decades of hard training. At times, to overcome his psychological weakness, he spent three hours a day motionless to cultivate calm; in daily life, one of his fingers still constantly twitches as if pulling a trigger, like a habit.
Rio 2016 Olympics
At the 2016 Olympics held in Rio, Brazil, on 6-8-2016, Hoàng Xuân Vinh passed the qualifiers of the men's 10m air pistol in fourth position. In the final, two surprising names took part in the race for the gold medal: host-country shooter Felipe Almeida Wu and Hoàng Xuân Vinh. In the final series, Felipe Wu at one point moved ahead, but composure helped the shooter from Hà Nội win with a decisive shot of 10.7 points. His final result of 202.5 points broke the Olympic record. This was the first Olympic gold medal for Vietnamese sport.
In addition, in the 50m pistol event, he also earned a place in the final series and took the silver medal with a result of 191.3 points.
When asked about his feelings while firing those historic shots, Hoàng Xuân Vinh confided: "I always turn toward the Fatherland and always believe that millions of Vietnamese people are supporting me and giving me more strength. So in those moments of firing the final shots, I did not think of myself but always thought of the flag of the Fatherland; at that time, one could say the national spirit was within me, urging me to fight, to win. At that moment I felt as if I were forged by will, by the will of the Vietnamese people, so I just focused on competing as well as possible."
Milestones and honours
With his historic gold medal, Hoàng Xuân Vinh at that time became the focus of media attention, not only in Vietnam but also in many other places. Later, he was voted the Outstanding Athlete of 2016 of Vietnamese sport. For his achievements contributing to the country's sporting cause, he was promoted to the military rank of colonel of the Vietnam People's Army.