Nhat Nguyen, one of Europe’s rising young stars share his personal Olympic journey, discusses how to be a champion, his big appearance on Irish TV and the mindset going into Tokyo.
Can Nhat Nguyen win the Olympics?
-Obviously in my head I think I can do it. To beat everyone in one tournament, it comes down to a lot of factors.
Hailing from a rural area near Hanoi, Vietnam, Nguyen moved to Ireland when he was just a year and a half. He admits it was a tough period of his life, with not much money to work with and not speaking English.
-Looking back on it now, to see how far we’ve come. My parents run a Chinese restaurant, my sister has three businesses and I’m playing badminton full-time. I am very grateful for everything.
During COVID-19, Nguyen was more than willing to help out his family with the business, preparing the food, taking the orders and even became the delivery driver.
Nguyen picked up a racket for the first time at seven years of age. It is in the Nguyen family nature to decide to do something and always give it 100 per cent.
Just after his twelve birthday in 2012, while watching the Olympics taking place on the other side of the Irish Sea in London, something clicked.
-I want to do that. I can do that. I’m going to give it a real shot. That’s when I started taking it a lot more seriously.
On the wall above his bed, he has the words ‘World Champion’, ‘Olympic Gold’ and ‘It’s what you do in the dark, that puts you in the light’. Waking up every morning he sees them for motivation.
How to become a champion
Nguyen climbed through the ranks and attributes much of this to his mindset and trying to understand how a champion thinks. Not only taking his training, recovery and nutrition to the next level but also trying to learn new strategies and skills that no other players in the world have.
In 2017, Nguyen won the Welsh International defeating an experienced R. M. V. Gurusaidutt and then followed it up by getting to the final of the Irish Open, as well as taking the continental crown at the European U17 Championships.
However, the following year he really consolidated his position as one of Europe’s brightest talents with a bronze medal at the 2018 European Junior Championships. Despite his upward rise, he has remained very grounded.
-I try not to think about materialistic things. I am trying to enjoy the little moments. It’s great to just be a good human being. Just being nice, polite, not being impulsive with your decisions and being in control.
The Late Late Show series finale
The world's second-longest-running late-night talk show, Ireland’s ‘The Late Late Show’ is one of the most popular shows on TV. For the season finale, they invited a line-up of sporting legends and Team Ireland’s Olympic qualifiers, including Nguyen.
Ireland will have 64 athletes competing in 14 sports. Katie Taylor, Olympic gold medallist and World Champion boxer, was also on the show which featured Olympic qualifiers Rhys McClenaghan (Gymnastics), Brendan Irvine (Boxing), Aoife Cooke (Marathon), Natalya Coyle (Athletics) and of course, Nhat Nguyen (Badminton), who discussed their final preparations before flying to Tokyo.
-It was very nerve-racking. Probably more nervous than I would be walking on court in Tokyo. But I had great fun on it. I met my other fellow Team Ireland athletes which was great because we are all on the same journey here, so it was nice to experience this with them.
Tokyo
Ireland’s only badminton representative put in some strong consistent performances over the Race to Tokyo qualification period and was ultimately the twenty-sixth qualifier for the Olympics.
At the beginning of 2021, at the Swiss Open, Nguyen had the scare due to lingering COVID-19 symptoms which affected his performance but he has fully shaken it off and training is in full swing.
-I will be staying in Ireland practising with a couple of sparring partners from Malaysia that we are bringing in for preparation camp.
Nguyen will fly out to Tokyo on 9 July to a holding camp in order to get acclimatised and ready for the biggest tournament of his career.
Nguyen’s positivity is something to be inspired by and what may set him apart in his career. The soon to be 21-year-old has a firm belief that if you are doing what you love and you have your family around you, then you are winning in life.
-Hopefully, things will work out my way. But if not, I am enjoying every bit of the journey.