Nhat Nguyen has been officially selected to represent Team Ireland in the Badminton Men’s Singles at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer. Nguyen, who turns 21 years of age today, will be one of the youngest members of Team Ireland, and has consistently performed throughout the qualification period to book his spot by finishing 26th in the final rankings, with 44 athletes competing in the event. The Badminton events take place in the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, with the Men’s Singles occurring from the 24 July to the finals on the 2 August 2021.
While this is Nguyen’s first Olympic Games, the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship holder competed strongly in the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, soon after he won a bronze medal in the European Junior Championships in 2018. In 2019 he made a smooth transition into the senior ranks, competing in the European Games in Minsk in 2019.
Speaking on his selection Nguyen said,
“I am delighted to be officially qualified for my first Olympics. Competing at the Olympics is goal I have set from a young age. I am looking forward to being part of Team Ireland and representing my country at Tokyo. Qualification was the first goal and now my goal is to be ready to deliver my best ever performance”
Olympic Federation of Ireland Chef de Mission for Tokyo 2020, Tricia Heberle said,
“It has been such a pleasure watching Nhat grow and develop as a player over the past few years. He is a real talent, and his smooth move into the senior category is testament to that. Young athletes like Nhat have benefited from the postponed Olympics, and his recent results and performances have shown that. We are excited to see what he can bring to the team in Tokyo 2020.”
Dan Magee, Badminton High Performance Director said,
“Qualification for an Olympic games in badminton is a tough process with your top ten results counting towards your final place. This qualification process was made even more difficult this time around as events have been postponed, cancelled, and changed to different dates on the calendar. Our Irish athletes have adapted well to the challenges and gave everything they had in the events they were able to target. I am delighted for Nhat Nguyen to qualify for his first Olympics at only twenty one years of age. Nhat showed great maturity to deal with the various challenges over the year and I have no doubt that we will see this resilience and fighting spirit once more when he takes to the courts in Tokyo.”
This brings to eleven the number of officially announced athletes who will compete on Team Ireland. The final team announcement scheduled for the beginning of July. The Olympic Games in Tokyo will run from the 23rd July to 8th August 2021.
TEAM IRELAND TOKYO BADMINTON ANNOUNCEMENT:
Men’s Singles:
Nhat Nguyen (Dublin)
NHAT NGUYEN – MORE INFO
Nguyen is an exciting young Irish badminton player who qualified for Tokyo 2020 ranked 26th with the top 38 qualifying for the Olympic Games when rankings closed, 44 athletes will compete in this category. Nguyen was born in Vietnam and lives in Dublin, and as a junior player won a bronze medal at the 2018 European Championships.