Vietnam won its first Youth Olympic medal when Nguyen Khac Le Hoang took silver in men’s taiji. This is important because it shows how one athlete can bring pride to the whole country.

Hoang scored 9.346 points in the taijiquan routine and the same in the taiji fan routine, for a total of 18.692 points. He was only 0.028 points behind the gold medalist Poon Hao Ran of Hong Kong.

The 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Senegal featured wushu for the first time. Vietnam had only one wushu place, and Hoang turned it into a podium finish. The country sent an 18‑member team, and beach wrestling and wushu were seen as its best chances for medals.

Before the Games, Hoang won a gold medal at the World Taijiquan Championships in Bulgaria. The Games bring about 2,700 athletes from 25 sports, and it is the first Olympic edition held in Africa.