Doc Quoc Toan: “I feel sorry for receiving the Olympic bronze medal 9 years late”

“I’m happy to have one more Olympic medal. But I also feel sorry for having to wait nine years to receive it,” Tran Le Quoc Toan said. VnExpress this morning 7/14.

At the 2012 Olympics, Quoc Toan is expected to bring home a medal for the Vietnamese sports delegation. However, he left the tournament empty-handed when he achieved a total of 284 kg, 2 kg less than the bronze medalist Valentin Hristov.

“I still remember that moment vividly. Me and the coaching staff were both surprised by Hristov’s achievements. We don’t understand why the Azerbaijani election has progressed so quickly, because eight months ago, this election. 20 kg less than me,” Quoc Toan recalled.

Quoc Toan forgot about his defeat in London, but seven years later, he received notice that he had been promoted to receive a bronze medal. Hristov was found to be doping by the World Weightlifting Federation after testing the sample for the third time at the 2012 Olympics. But it took two more years for Quoc Toan to receive a bronze medal in the discharge ceremony of the sports delegation. Vietnam for the Tokyo Olympics last night July 13.

“Normally, if there is a doping incident, the next Olympic Games after four years, the athletes who are promoted will receive the medal. I have up to nine years. Fortunately, the medal has not been rusted,” Quoc Toan joked. “If only I received the medal right at the time of the competition, my feelings, the coaching staff and the whole Vietnamese sports team would be different. If I had won the Olympic bronze medal then, I would have been better invested and personally as well. I have more spirit and motivation to strive. At that time, my career may have turned to a brighter new direction.”

Quoc Toan was born in 1989, once considered the golden hope of Vietnamese weightlifting. But after empty-handed at the 2012 London Olympics, he was no longer a star of Vietnamese sports, not receiving key investment, so his performance went down.

“Anyway, it’s over, I have to accept it. I will go back and frame this special medal and hang it in the gym,” Quoc Toan added with a sad voice.

Quoc Toan opened a gym for his wife to manage in Dong Anh, Hanoi. But because of Covid-19, the room was constantly closed, so the income was no longer available. Quoc Toan is both training and waiting for the competition, while also undertaking the training of young people for the Da Nang unit. This candidate hopes that the 2012 Olympic bronze medal he has just received will be the motivation for him to achieve good results at the national championship at the end of the year.

Lam Tho