Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên

Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên (born November 9, 1996, in Cần Thơ) is a Vietnamese swimmer. She swam for Vietnam at the 2016 Olympics. At the 2014 Asian Games, she won Vietnam's first-ever medal in swimming. She has been named Vietnam's Athlete of the Year in both 2013 and 2014. By the end of 2014, she holds the Vietnamese records in 14 of the 17 long-course individual events. At the 2012 Olympics, she swam the 200 Backstroke and the 400 Individual Medley. In addition to her competitive swimming career, Ánh Viên also serves in the Vietnamese army in the rank of major.

Swimming career
She began swimming with private lessons given by her grandfather. At grade 5, Ánh Viên competed for the first time at the district level and easily beat her opponents.

She was quickly spotted by coaches of a military team and soon joined the team.

At 16, Ánh Viên was already 1.7 metre tall with long limbs and big feet, considered advantageous attributes of a swimmer. Ánh Viên got ten gold medals, one in each of ten categories at the National Championship. She also won two silver medals at the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia.
 * 2011

Ánh Viên competed for the first time at the London Summer Olympics in two categories: 200m backstroke and 400m medley. At the SEA Games 27 in Myanmar (12/2013), Ánh Viên got six medals in total (3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze), she broke two Sea Games records in 200m backstroke (2 min 14 sec 80) and 400m medley ( pmin 6 gsec 6),.đShe was voted the "Golden Impression of SEA Games 27 ".
 * 2012
 * 2013

2014 Asian Games
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Ánh Viên won the bronze medals in the 200m Backstroke and the 400m Individual Medley event.

28th Sea Games in Singapore
Ánh Viên was one of the top swimmers at Sea Games 2015 in Singapore along with native Singaporean Joseph Schooling. She was the best female athlete at this competition when she captured 8 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 1 bronze medal. This excellent result helped Vietnam secure the second place in swimming just behind host Singapore.

16th Fina World Championship in Kazan
At the 2015 FINA Swimming World Cup in Iraq, Ánh Viên moved into the semifinals in 200m IM but placed 8 in her heat. In the 400m individual medley she missed the final.