Dương Thúy Vi

Thúy Vi was born to a father who practiced shaolinquan and a mother who was a wing chun fighter, and started martial arts training under her parents at the age of three.^[1] When she was seven, her father took one of her cousins to practice wushu to lose weight and thus Thúy Vi discovered modern wushu taolu.^[2]

Thúy Vi made her international debut at the 2005 Asian Junior Wushu Championships where she won a silver medal in jianshu and a bronze medal in qiangshu.^[3] She also won a silver medal in jianshu at the 1st World Junior Wushu Championships in 2006.^[4] The following year, she won silver medals in changquan qiangshu at the 2007 Asian Junior Wushu Championships.^[5] Two years later, Thúy Vi was the Asian junior champion in changquan and a bronze medalist in jianshu after competing in the 2009 Asian Junior Wushu Championships.^[6] Her last junior competition was at the 2011 Asian Junior Wushu Championships where she was the Asian junior champion in jianshu and qiangshu and also won a bronze medal in changquan.^[7]

Thúy Vi first competed in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games where she won the bronze medal in women's jianshu and qiangshu combined.^[8] She then competed in the 2011 World Wushu Championships where she won a silver medal in duilian and a bronze medal in jianshu.^[9] In 2012, she competed in the Asian Wushu Championships in Hanoi and won a silver medal in jianshu and a bronze medal in duilian with Hoàng Thị Phương Giang.^[10]

The following year, the won a gold medal in jianshu and a silver medal in qiangshu at the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.^[11] Shortly after, Thúy Vi became the world champion in qiangshu and a silver medalist in jianshu at the 2013 World Wushu Championships.^[12] These repeated victories prepared her for the 2014 Asian Games where she was the gold medalist in women's jianshu and qiangshu, thus achieving Vietnam's first gold medal in wushu at the Asian Games and only gold at the 2014 games.^[13] This victory led Thúy Vi to be the first Vietnamese athlete to be featured in a CNN publication in the United States.^[14][15]

At the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, Thúy Vi won medals of all colors with a gold victory in jianshu.^[16] Shortly after this, she was a double silver medalist in her weapons events and a bronze medalist in changquan at the 2015 World Wushu Championships.^[17] This qualified her for the 2016 Taolu World Cup where she won the silver medal in jianshu. She then competed in the 2016 Asian Wushu Championships and was a bronze medalist in qiangshu.^[18]

A year later, she was a double gold medalist in jianshu and qiangshu at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games,^[19] and was the world champion in qiangshu once again at the 2017 World Wushu Championships.^[20] Thúy Vi then competed in the 2018 Asian Games and won the bronze medal in women's jianshu and qiangshu. A year later, she competed at the 2019 World Wushu Championships where she won two silver medals in jianshu and qiangshu.^[21]

Thúy Vi's first major competition after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was the 2021 Southeast Asian Games (hosted in 2022) where she won gold medals in jianshu and qiangshu and a bronze in changquan.^[22] Shortly after, she won the gold medal in women's jianshu and qiangshu combined at the 2022 World Games, the first medal for Vietnam at the 2022 games.^[23]

In May 2023, she won the gold medal in women's jianshu and qiangshu combined in the 2023 SEA Games.^[24] In September, she won the bronze medal in the women's jianshu and qiangshu competition at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.^[25][26] Shortly after, she competed in the 2023 World Combat Games and finished 5th in women's jianshu and qiangshu combined. She then competed in the 2023 World Wushu Championships and finished 6th in changquan and 13th in jianshu and qiangshu.^[27] Nearly a year later, she won the bronze medal in jianshu at the 2024 Asian Wushu Championships.^[28] She then won a silver medal in jianshu at the 2024 Taolu World Cup.^[29]