Many Vietnamese sport viewers have expressed their disappointment that four Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, made their presence known in the medal count table at London 2012, while Vietnam did not. But it’s not all about the problematic Vietnam sporting program.

>> Bravo, Team Vietnam The critics should take into consideration the fact that even the said countries are not pleased with their London results, as they too failed to repeat their achievements in Beijing 2008, with none of them bringing home a gold medal. Vietnamese viewers should not put the sole silver medal weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan snatched in Beijing four years ago in comparison with the empty haul they made in London over the last two weeks and base their criticism on that. The problem is way larger than just the medals.Officials’ faults Most of the Vietnamese Olympic hopefuls underperformed at the London Games, but they are not to be blamed. The needle of criticism should be pointed towards responsible officials, who are in charge of using the state budget to take care of them, but failed to adequately fulfill their duties. After weightlifter Tran Le Quoc Toan failed to grab the bronze medal when he finished fourth at the final match, a sporting official answered in a TV interview that the failure occurred because Toan was distracted by the loud shouts of two Vietnamese spectators at the venue. This information, understandably, does not please local spectators. If the story is true, then it means the weightlifter was too weak psychologically, and did not deserve to compete for an Olympic medal. Local sporting officials constantly declared that they had provided the best investment on the 18 Vietnamese athletes for their London journey. So is that investment effective when Toan, who is said to be trained by coaching experts and sent on overseas training trips, could easily be distracted by just a loud cheering sound? The story is the same for the gymnastics team. Prior to the departure of the three gymnasts, officials asserted that the athletes were well-prepared as they were allowed to leave for London early to practice. But when the team arrived, the people responsible began to complain of cold weather, the distant location, and the lack of training equipment. So what is a “well-prepared journey,” in their opinion? There were also many problematic training trips for the athletics and swimming teams, which the public has criticized repeatedly. But the people in charge always deny responsibility, and when failures eventually come, they will find a myriad of excuses to use.