Kim Son fisherman retires from the team to focus on studying
"This is the third time I have resigned from the team and it has been accepted. Fortunately, it was not more than three times. I have thought about this decision very carefully," Nguyen Huu Kim Son told MetaSports on the morning of August 15.
Kim Son first asked to retire from the national team before the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam, but the leader did not agree. He continued to fail at the next application, after the 2022 National Sports Festival, but it was not until after the 23rd SEA Games in Cambodia that he was approved. Kim Son planned to take a break from June but was persuaded to stay for an extra month to finish the world swimming tournament in Japan in July.
"I took a break because I couldn't balance my training schedule - swimming competition and university study schedule," Kim Son said about wanting to quit the national team from 2022.
Kim Son was born in 2001, used to be a prodigy of Vietnamese swimming. He participated in the world championship in 2017, at the age of 15, and in the same year became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal for the Vietnamese sports delegation in the SEA Games arena when he finished first in the men's 400m medley with time. 4 minutes 12 seconds 22, breaking the Games record. At the last two SEA Games, Kim Son had a gold medal in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay.
Kim Son is currently a second year student at Duy Tan University, Ho Chi Minh City, majoring in business administration.
"If it's a short time before the world championships, Asiad or SEA Games, I can still ask the school to be flexible about the schedule. But now I have to follow the team 100% of the time, time and effort. The amount of practice is very heavy, affecting learning. The school always supports, but I feel uncomfortable when I have to constantly skip classes, affecting the teachers, and especially the knowledge gap itself, affecting the relationship. It's not the grades that are important anymore. It's not the grades that matter anymore, but you have to have real knowledge to serve your future work," added Kim Son.
Kim Son said that when he focused on attending the 32nd SEA Games, the macroeconomics teacher still had to play the video at 12pm to make up for him. This makes Vietnam's golden fisherman see itself as a great influence on teachers.
"The first year of general education is still light, this year I have specialized subjects, which are very important for the future. Therefore, I have to retire from the national team. But I still swim in the water for the club, it's easy." Kim Son added.
Kim Son said that although he has a great passion for swimming, his dream is to work in finance and business in the future. His father is a restaurant manager and also owns a large nail salon in the US.
