Winter Olympics among Vietnam’s 5 big sports events for 2022

2022 Winter Olympics

The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held for 17 days starting February 4 in China’s Beijing. A total of 109 medal sets will be awarded in seven sports: biathlon, bobsledding, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing.

Skiing has the most number of disciplines (six) with a total of 55 medal sets.

As of December 22, there were 86 countries and territories with at least one athlete participating in the event. Although Vietnam was not on the list, it is set to join the Winter Olympics for the first time.

2021 SEA Games

After a year of delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam is set to host the 2021 Southeast Asian Games in May this year. This will be the second time that Vietnam is hosting the biennial multi-sports event involving the 11 countries of Southeast Asia.

The 12-day (May 12-23) event will be held in Hanoi and 11 other northern localities. Around 10,000 athletes will compete for 526 sets of medals in 40 sports.

At the last SEA Games in 2019, Vietnam surpassed Thailand to claim second place behind hosts Philippines. The only time Vietnam claimed the first place in the history of this event was as host in 2003.

45th World Chess Olympiad

The 45th World Chess Olympiad will be held July 26 to August 8 in Moscow, Russia and Khanty-Mansiysk.

The biennial chess tournament was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. In its 2018 edition, Vietnam had secured 10th place, which was considered a major success.

2022 Asian Games

China will host the 2022 Asian Games (also known as Asiad) from September 10 to 25 in Zhejiang. This the third time that China hosts the regional event that is held every four years.

The Games will include athletes from Oceania for the first time. There will be 482 medal sets in 40 sports awarded at the event.

At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Vietnam had finished in 16th place.

14th AFF Championship

The 14th AFF Cup, organized by the ASEAN Football Federation, is set to be held at the end of this year. Specific dates have not been announced.

Vietnam, under coach Park Hang-seo, has set the target of reclaiming the throne in ASEAN football after losing to Thailand 2-0 at the ongoing 13th AFF Cup.