Despite sending delegations to the 1980 Olympic Games and 1982 Asian Games (Asiad) following the national reunification in 1975, Vietnamese sport was essentially closed and international competition and high-performance achievements were still far off.

It was not until the Doi Moi (renovation) process was initiated in 1986 that Vietnamese sport began to make real breakthroughs.

Sport is one of the areas playing the pioneering role in the country’s mission of international integration.

At the 15th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games hosted by Malaysia in 1989, it was needless to say how worried the Vietnamese sport sector felt.

At that time, the SEA Games were still a rather strange concept and the number of trainers and athletes who had competed abroad before were next to none.

This forced the national sporting sector to begin forming a delegation, which was strong enough to compete against international challengers, even to the point of summoning several trainers and athletes who had retired or switched to other fields.

And finally, an acceptable lineup was established consisting of 64 members, 48 of whom were athletes in eight sports.

In mid-September, 1989, on a special flight, Vietnam’s first sport ambassadors departed for Malaysia in a nervous state.

Many of them had never experienced the feeling of being on a plane previously.

What the national contingent targeted to achieve at that time was, of course, not victory but the initiation and enhancement of the friendship and co-operation with other countries in the region.

No member of the team was sure about their own chances of winning a medal, they simply kept in mind the thought of doing their job to the best of their ability.

However, what Vietnamese athletes achieved was far beyond expectation – three gold, 11 silver and five bronze medals – with the first gold scored by shooter Ngo Ngan Ha with a nearly two decade old standard rifle manufactured in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Since that milestone, the Vietnamese sporting sector has been making big steps forward in its journey of integration and development over the past 25 years.

Vietnam came out on top at the 22nd SEA Games hosted on home field in 2013 and has always maintained its position in the top-three in subsequent competitions.

Earlier in 1994, taekwondo artist Tran Quang Ha earned Vietnam a historic gold medal at the Asian Games (Asiad) arena before another taekwondo fighter Tran Hieu Ngan made Vietnam’s mark on the largest international sporting event – the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games – with a silver in the women’s under-57kg category.

Vietnam has not only reached the regional level in some sports but also managed to become a world-class player on the international level. The country has had numerous Asian and World champions, achieving success in demanding sports such as weightlifting, shooting, athletics and gymnastics.

At present, with 40 systematically-invested events, Vietnamese sport has fielded its relatively full participation into big competitions of world sports. Besides the three major platforms, SEA Games – Asiad – The Olympics, Vietnam has also actively participated in many other non-traditional types of competition such as indoor sports and beach sports.

The national sports sector has established comprehensive co-operative relations with nearly 100 national sports sectors throughout the world and has also become a trustworthy member of international sports organisations.

In recent times Vietnam has had increasing numbers of sports officials elected to management committees of various international federations and associations, such as the Olympic Council of Asia.

It can be said that Vietnamese sport has been very successful in its international integration compared to other areas.

Through its vigorous integration process, the Vietnamese sporting sector has improved its status in the world arena, contributing significantly to promoting the image of Vietnam and its people to international friends and promoting friendship and co-operation with other countries and territories.

Regardless of those achievements, the integration and development outcome and reality of Vietnamese sport has yet to reach its full potential as well as the envisaged goals.

To some extent, the national sporting sector is still serious about achievement, with a lot of international co-operation stories surrounding the issue.

Additionally, Vietnamese sport is also yet to reach an acceptable level, exemplified by the country’s failing to realise the assigned targets with just one gold medal in two Asiad competitions (2010, 2014) and no medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Vietnamese sport has been squirming with a serious dependence on the SEA Games arena and increasingly revealed basic shortcomings without finding a connection to the continental and world-level arenas.

The national sports sector proposed a timely and reasonable strategy ten years ago, which was to approach the continental level and head onto the Olympic arena.

However, due to various reasons, that slogan could not become a joint direction and mutual goal for the whole sports sector.

And it is time that goal be re-determined in a serious and definitive fashion in order to break through and escape from the local peaceful pond and head on to the bigger, challenging ocean. Time does not wait for anyone and neither do our opponents.

Gone are the days we entered the competition timidly and consented to any initial success.