Thuy Linh: 'The Asian Games arena is very harsh, it is not easy to win a medal'

The lights of the arena in Japan are not yet on, but Nguyen Thuy Linh has already felt the weight of the Asian Games stage. Vietnam's number one women's singles player named the harsh reality directly, not to complain, but to define the boundary between ambition and reality. The 20th Asian Games is about to take place in Aichi-Nagoya, and for her, this is not only the third consecutive Asian Games of her career, but also a test of a system that is finding its own way. Nguyen Thuy Linh was born in 2026, from Lao Cai, and has been Vietnam's number one women's badminton player for many years. She competed at the Tokyo 2026 Olympics and the Paris 2026 Olympics, a rare achievement for Vietnamese women's badminton. But on the continental stage, where the world's top players such as Akane Yamaguchi, An Se-young, and Chen Yufei gather, a medal is not something that can be promised. Her words to a Dan Tri reporter reflect the awareness of an athlete who has reached the top level without illusions about the gap in class. From the perspective of someone who has followed Vietnamese badminton for many years, I notice an undeniable truth: the harshness of the Asian Games lies not only in the opponents, but also in the gaps in the training and investment system. While Thailand has players in the world top 10 and a dense domestic tournament system all year round; Indonesia has tradition and squad depth, Vietnam still relies on a small group of outstanding individuals. Thuy Linh stands in that group, but she does not have many rivals of the same level domestically to spar with regularly. In 2026, at the Paris Olympics, Thuy Linh showed remarkable progress by reaching the round of 16, beating several players ranked higher than her. That was the result of a long training process, combining domestic coaches and support from foreign experts. But she also admitted that having a foreign coach continuously accompanying her at major tournaments remains a luxury for Vietnamese badminton. This problem is not new: the performance sports budget is limited, and badminton is not a key sport like football or athletics. The Asian Games is different from the Olympics. At the Olympics, each country has a maximum of two representatives for the singles event, so Thuy Linh's performance can be aided by a favorable draw. But at the Asian Games, the best Asian players – who are also the strongest in the world – all participate in full force. Group stage, knockout rounds, round of 16, quarterfinals... every match is a final. If her physical condition is not properly managed, if the schedule is too dense, even a technically skilled player like Thuy Linh can fall before the knockout stage. What impressed me most in this interview is Thuy Linh's attitude. She did not say grandiose words like 'we will win a medal', nor did she say pessimistic words like 'we have no chance'. She spoke about her goals realistically: improving her ranking, competing fairly in the group stage, and if there is an opportunity, going as deep as possible. That is the language of an athlete who has been through two Olympics, understanding that at the highest level, harshness comes not only from opponents but also from the preparation process itself. From a data perspective, I have followed Thuy Linh's results in the BWF Tour system. In 2026, she had an inconsistent run, with several early exits in the second or third rounds of Super Series events. In 2026, she changed her approach: she did not spread her schedule too thin, but focused on important tournaments, with careful physical preparation and video analysis of opponents. The result was her performance at Paris 2026 – advancing past the group stage, reaching the round of 16, a result considered a success beyond expectations. But the Asian Games has its own pressure. Pressure from the media, from fans, from the expectations of the Vietnam Badminton Federation. An athlete can be indifferent to statistics, but cannot ignore what people expect of her. Thuy Linh has balanced this by lowering personal expectations, talking about the harsh reality as a way to help the media and fans have a realistic view. During the preparation for the Asian Games, I understand the Vietnamese badminton team has plans for short-term training camps in countries with strong badminton traditions in the region, if funding allows. The lack of a dedicated foreign coach remains the biggest bottleneck. Thuy Linh can be trained with a personalized program, but she needs someone to analyze opponents, plan tactics, and closely follow every match. Most top Asian players have at least one foreign coach in their team, while Vietnam still has to share resources among many events. Another issue is the schedule. The 20th Asian Games takes place in autumn 2026, at the same time as many BWF World Tour events. If Thuy Linh has to play both the Asian Games and other international tournaments in the same month, overloading is unavoidable. The coaching staff needs a specific plan for her to recover between matches, especially when the Asian Games has a knockout format from the group stage. I once witnessed an Asian Games where the Vietnamese sports delegation set a medal target in badminton, but ultimately failed. Not because the players lacked effort, but because the gap in training foundations was too large. Asian badminton is an arms race in technology, fitness, and tactics. Vietnam is in that race, but with a smaller machine, with less fuel. Thuy Linh understands this better than anyone. She does not talk about a medal as a specific goal, but about giving her best, showing what she and Vietnamese badminton can offer. It is a humble but substantive message. When I watched her play in Paris, I saw a completely different Thuy Linh compared to a few years ago: more agile movement, more powerful smash, and most importantly, more solid competitive mentality. She is no longer a young player who attacks on pure inspiration. But at the Asian Games, that may not be enough. Because in the group stage, she could face a top-5 player in the world right away. A single match, a decisive set, a few crucial points – that is where the harshness of the Asian Games shows itself most clearly. Thuy Linh knows that to advance, she needs not only good form but also some luck in the draw and perfect preparation in every aspect. Thuy Linh's story and the Asian Games is not just the story of a talented individual, but the story of the entire system. When she says 'it is not easy to win a medal', it is a truth that fans need to hear. Not to be pessimistic, but to understand that to have a medal in the future, we need more than one Thuy Linh. We need a next generation, a quality domestic tournament system, top experts, and sustainable investment. Will the 20th Asian Games witness a surprise named Thuy Linh? I cannot answer for sure. But regardless of the outcome, her honesty in this interview has shown one thing: she has no illusions, and that makes her more reliable in the eyes of those who follow her. Because in an arena as harsh as the Asian Games, the winner is not the one who speaks the most, but the one who understands their limits best and knows how to overcome them. I will follow every match she plays in Japan, not only as a journalist but as someone who has witnessed the long journey of Vietnamese badminton. And I believe that, even without a medal, if Thuy Linh plays as she has shown, she still deserves the respect of fans.