Nguyen glad he took time to switch off after Paris

The ‘what now’. Everyone has to face it after an Olympics, regardless of whether they breasted a tape first, made one of the other steps on the podium, or got lost in the maw of the masses. Paris was Nhat Nguyen’s second Games.

It brought out his best as he took care of business in the opening two pool ties against Israeli and Nepalese opponents before putting it up to Danish superstar Viktor Axelsen who went on to retain the men’s badminton singles title. “For me it went so fast,” he said. “Now we’re three months after and all the experiences and the emotions, the highs and the lows, the stress: it went so fast.



I gave it my all at the Games. I really left everything out there and I can only be proud of myself for that. “The draw was tough, I lost to the eventual winner, but for me it was good to see where I was at playing against the best in the biggest event of them all.

I showed myself that I have abilities and my game has developed a bit. I just hope that I can improve daily.” He can look back now and drink in an “unbelievable experience” utterly unlike Tokyo’s quiet Games.

This one played out to a backdrop of packed venues, in front of his parents, and it only added to the desire to do it again come LA in 2028. A six-week vacation travelling around southeast Asia made for a lovely decompression chamber after it. Nguyen only took a week off after Japan in 2021, his eagerness to get back on the horse burnished by the enthusiasm and the ignorance of youth.

He knew better this time. There wasn’t a shuttlecock struck or a weight lifted throughout his travels, and getting engaged while he was away only added value to the decision to down tools and prioritise life away from the court. “I was on vacation, just enjoying myself, travelling with my missus: my fiancé now.

I was just travelling around to...

Not live normal, but just enjoy the time off, even if it was a struggle not to go back to the gym at times. I could reset and just go again. “Before, after Tokyo, I didn’t really get the chance fully because I only had a week to ten days off.

I didn’t really take in or digest the experience. I guess it was lack of experience. I just wanted to jump straight back into the boat.

“I had played well at the Olympics and I wanted to keep going but I realise that you burn out a little bit. That has given me a lot for the next cycle also. That mental thought and clarity definitely comes from taking a break.

” Nguyen found pleasure in the simplest of things. Even shopping. If that break post-Paris sets him up well for the next four-year cycle then it sits alongside the brave and risky decision he took with six months of the last qualifying window to go when he came to a decision to basically deconstruct his entire game.

Realisation dawned that to keep doing what he was doing wouldn’t be enough to push on. Did he want to keep just making Games or start pushing further towards a medal? In the end, there wasn’t really any choice. His love for the sport had waned as he found himself on a plateau.

A man who had spoken about making five or more Olympics was thinking about quitting. He changed everything: mentally, physically, technically in order to grow. It worked.

“That shows for me that change is good. A change of environment, this or that is good. Varying my game around is good.

No way I want to stop. I want to keep developing. If I don’t develop then where? I just feel like you’re stuck.

“I can see...

Not the light at the end of the tunnel but the path. You can see that it is working. I am in a state now where I am still trial and error but I can see the clearer picture down the line in one, two, three years down the line and how it will develop.

“That is a great sign because pre-Olympics I couldn’t see the next step. I couldn’t see how I could develop so it is really nice for me, just to take two steps back and go forward.” Nguyen already has three tournaments under his belt since the summer, the last of them showing the most promise but bringing the most heartbreak as a back injury fed into a narrow quarter-final defeat at the Hylo Open in Saarbrucken last month.

This week brings some home comforts in the form of the AIG Irish Open in Abbotstown. It was when winning his national event this time last year that he felt his newly constructed game coming together. A follow-up would go down well.

“Yeah, no pressure,” he laughed. “That is the goal. Of course I want to repeat what I did last year.

I can only face what is in front of me. I can only take it one game at a time. Give it my all.

”.