Training consumes most time of Vietnam’s star swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien

During a talk with the media in the city state on the evening of June 11, the 19-year girl said, “Now, my day includes training, eating, sleeping, and training again.

“I haven’t thought about what I like yet.”

She said she had some foreign friends at swimming clubs in the U.S., where she trained to prepare for the 2015 SEA Games, but the teen has not kept a close relation with any of them.

When asked if she is learning about anything else besides swimming, Vien answered, “Now, I think I need to learn English and I’ve spent much time on that.”

“My swimming coach [Dang Anh Tuan] is also my teacher of English,” she added.

Tuan said, “I’ve been teaching Vien English and some other subjects so that she will be able to take school exams on returning home.”

The knowledge will be useful for her when she becomes a swimming coach in the future, he added.

Commenting on Vien’s schedule filled with training, coach Tuan said, “I’d like to say that pursuing a sports career requires hard effort because it is a struggle for life.

“If you don’t win, you lose.

“You need training to be skillful.”

The coach further explained, “I think it is not harshness but the winning desire that helps Vien adapt to this training method. It’s sport.

“For me, I am not tough when dealing with her but very flexible and gentle.

“Otherwise, we can’t keep the relation of a coach and a swimmer.”

The coach said swimming requires scientific knowledge because “you will lose if you eat less than the required ration or if you are short of 10 minutes in your daily sleep.”

Sitting side by side with the coach, Vien burst into tears on hearing him say these things. Soon before, her eyes were dewed with tears on mentioning her family.

“Sometimes I feel very much exhausted during training and want to give up.

“But I try to keep the thought that I will waste all the efforts I have made in the past years and let them carried away by river water if I surrender to hardship.

“However, I am surprised by the attention of the media.

“I’ve never thought that I am a star. Otherwise, it is difficult for me to keep the relation with my coach.”

Her tears just stopped rolling down when she talked about her training in the U.S.

“My teacher [the way she addressed her coach Tuan] prepared Vietnamese food and dishes whenever I asked him to,” Vien said.

But Tuan admitted it was the first time he had known how to cut beef because he had never done it before, referring to the occasions when he cooked food for the swimmer.

“I just wanted to set an example for Vien that ‘you always have to make efforts and learn everything’,” Tuan said.

Asked about her boyfriend, Vien replied, “I haven’t thought about that yet. Now, my lover is swimming.”

“I am now dreaming of winning a gold medal at an Olympic Games event,” Vien revealed.

At the 28th SEA Games that will wrap up in Singapore on June 16, Vien won eight gold medals in the women’s 200m backstroke, 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 400m freestyle, 400m individual medley, and 800m freestyle categories.

She also won a silver medal in the women’s 100m freestyle event and a bronze in the women’s 50m backstroke.