Accompanying the 23 athletes on Team Vietnam to Rio 2016 were two doctors and one physical therapist – the most medical staff the country has ever sent to an Olympics.

You are not reading it wrong.  Tran Duc Phan, the official who led the team to the Games, confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper last week that Rio 2016 was the first-ever Olympics where there were ‘so many’ Vietnamese doctors on duty.

It goes without saying that Vietnam’s “record” is trivial compared to other teams.

Three for 23

In Brazil, the three-man health army labored day and night in order to ensure the healthiness Vietnam’s 23 athletes, making them the hardest-working members of Team Vietnam during the Games.

The medical team’s schedules were filled almost every moment of the day, excluding meal and sleep times when they could be finally allowed to rest after a long, hard day.

“We began working at 7:30 in the morning every day, following athletes in the morning, afternoon, and evening. 8:30 pm was the most stressful time because athletes needed treatment to begin their recovery after a long day of training. We had to work with 15 or 16 athletes every night,” Nguyen Van Phu, the head of the health committee for the Vietnam delegation, said.

The staff was also expected to deal with the injuries from the delegation’s athletes, such as those sustained by weightlifters Thach Kim Tuan and Vuong Thi Huyen, sprinter Nguyen Thi Huyen, gymnast Pham Phuoc Hung, and wrestler Vu Thi Hang.

Nguyen Trong Hien, in charge of injuries for the Vietnamese athletes, said that the three members of the medical team had to stay up all night to discuss the cases of Vuong Thi Huyen and Vu Thi Hang, who were injured close to their events.

Despite the demanding schedule, Phu still revealed that Rio 2016 Olympics was the best sporting event that he has attended in his 20 years of medical experience.

He stated that the early formation of the health committee allowed the medical staff to discuss and begin early planning for the event.

A considerable for the medical teams during this year’s event was the availability of high-tech medical devices that the Vietnam delegation borrowed from Japan during the Olympics, saving Phu and his colleagues a large amount of time.

Before the Olympics, there had been a public controversy over the imbalance between the number of officials attending the event (seven officials) and the number of medical staff, but that controversy seemed not to affect the three men on the health committee.

Understaffed and under-equipped, these unsung heroes remained optimistic and dedicated themselves to the athletes while and contributing to the first ever Olympic gold medal in the history of Vietnamese sports.

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