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Gymnast Pham Nhu Phuong. Photo from Phuong’s Facebook page |
The decision was made on Tuesday at a meeting attended by the coaching staff of the national gymnastics team, representatives of the National Sports Training Center, the head of the gymnastics department of the Sports Department of high level I and officials of the Vietnamese Gymnastics Federation.
The Vietnam Sports Authority said the suspension was aimed at minimizing distractions for athletes currently preparing for qualifying for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Duong, who is also a coach at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center, was directly responsible for the training of Phuong, a national team gymnast.
Phuong claimed Monday that Duong coerced her into giving the coach 10 percent of her medals and 30 to 50 percent of her place bonuses over an extended period.
It was also determined at the meeting that Duong’s actions – deducting commissions from athletes’ prize money – were individual misconduct and not the intention of the national team coaches or the Sports Training and Competition Center. Hanoi.
Duong was asked to give a detailed account before further disciplinary measures are decided by the Vietnam Sports Authority.
In the same case, Nguyen Ha Thanh, another coach at the Hanoi center, was also temporarily suspended for forcing Phuong to forfeit his prize.
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Gymnast Pham Nhu Phuong at SEA Games 31 in Hanoi in 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy |
Truong Ngoc Lan, deputy director of Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center, said: VnExpress that the Hanoi unit and the national team commit to thoroughly investigating the matter. This includes determining the timeline of the incidents to determine which organization was supervising the athlete at that time, in order to determine appropriate action.
“The center will not hide or ignore the incident,” Lan said.
A follow-up meeting involving the center and the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is scheduled for Wednesday morning to reach a final conclusion.
Phuong, a 2018 Youth Olympics gold medalist and notable hopeful in women’s gymnastics, won two silver and two bronze medals at the 2022 SEA Games 31 in Vietnam.
She filed for retirement after her unexpected exclusion from training camp in early 2024, attributed to her unexcused absence. Phuong then claimed that she had submitted a leave request to her coach at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center to travel abroad to visit friends during the training camp phase, but this request had not been transmitted to the Vietnamese Gymnastics Federation.
When VnExpress After contacting her for comment on Tuesday, Phuong’s sister and representative said she was busy and would comment later.
