The 4000-year history filled with eternal wars of founding and defending the country had tempered a martial Vietnamese nation. This martial tradition was evidently manifested in sporting events found in the collective activities of the Viet people from the very old time.

In the cultural aspect, the Red River delta’s traditional rituals is well-known with the quan ho songs and the cheo melodies; and in the eyes of sportsmen, it proceeded excitingly with contests of wrestling, wushu, swinging and playing Chinese chess. The annual races of canoeing, swimming and diving are always fierce competitions among young men from coastal and riverside regions. Up in the mountainous areas, horse races, elephant races, contests of arrow and cross-bow shooting and other sporting games like throwing con ball have been perpetuated until today.

Under the French domination and the South Vietnam regimes, Vietnamese national sportsmen, though being scattered in operation, attended many international competitions in the region and finished as champion or among the top standings many times in such categories as soccer, boxing, cycling, tennis...

Since 1975, the Vietnamese sports and physical culture have been truly promoted to become a widespread movement among people with the slogan "To be strong to construct and defend the country". The French and American war posed big obstacles to the development of the Vietnamese sports; nonetheless, at every interval during these two wars, Vietnam had been hectic to construct the preliminary infrastructure for sports. Stadiums and training centers had been built, and more importantly, the first training officers and managing officers of the sports branch had undergone basic training inside the country and abroad.

A sport festival
Since the country’s unification in 1976 and especially the introduction of the renovation process in 1986, positive social and economic changes have pushed the sports branch to thrive.

The sports movement at grassroots levels has increasingly attracted mass participation; millions of people of walk of ages have been regularly practicing sports and physical exercises. Streets of Vietnam in the early morning often impress foreigners by groups of people exercising thai cuc quyen (taijiquan, a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing), deep-breathing training, playing badminton and mini-soccer. Widespread aerobic and nourishing exercise clubs have attracted middle-aged and old people, while courses of Judo, Karate, and Taekwondo have been a passion of the youth. Sporting events take place all year round across the country with major competitions of each category and sports games at local and national levels.