Nguyet to be Vietnam’s flagbearer at her second Olympic appearance

Archer Do Thi Anh Nguyet and badminton player Le Duc Phat were named Vietnam’s flagbearers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on 26 July.

It will be the second Olympics to feature two flagbearers from each country in the opening ceremony parade.

“I am very proud and honoured to represent 16 Vietnamese athletes holding the flag,” Nguyet said. “I will compete with all my might for the Vietnamese flag to bring glory to the country and Vietnamese archery.”

Paris will be the 22-year-old’s second Games after she already competed in Tokyo.

Nguyet thought her Paris Olympic dream had ended, but on 26 June she was called up as one of three archers taking last quota places based on their world rankings.

She will take part in the recurve women’s individual and mixed team – alongside Le Quoc Phong – events. The 24-year-old qualified a men’s spot with top-five finish at the final world qualifier in Antalya mid-June.

Nguyet started her sporting career as a basketball player in 2016. However, after seven months, her coaches saw she was more suited to archery and she was advised to move to the new sport in early 2017. (Sports coaches in Vietnam often train athletes in multiple sports.)

Her first international tournament was the 2019 Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok, where she and Nguyen Hoang Phi Vu became the first Vietnamese archers to qualify for the Olympics.

Paris 2024 will be the nation’s eleventh appearance at the Olympics as a reunified republic – with 16 athletes competing in 11 sports.

Competition at the Olympics starts on 25 July.