A star in the martial art of Wushu, the 21-year-old Vietnamese clinched gold at the World Championships and the Southeast Asian Games in 2013 and was crowned champion at the 17th Asian Games held in South Korea last September.
Having won numerous titles as a junior — she was a national, regional and world champion — Duong hasn’t tired of the winning feeling in her fledgling senior career.
“Each time I win and stand on the podium, I feel that I truly have won myself,” Duong told CNN’s Human to Hero series.
“When they put the gold medal on me, I feel so emotional, as if it is a dream.”
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The 35-year-old, who now coaches the sport, made history in 1993 when she won a world championship gold medal at the age of 14 before repeating the feat four years later.
“She was the first person to win a world championship gold medal for the Vietnamese Wushu team,” Duong says.
Duong will have a chance to emulate Nguyen at the World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia next October. Victory will be another acrobatic step towards her goal of mastering both the physical and the mental challenges of the ancient martial art.
“In my opinion, in order to become a great athlete, one must have qualities of persistence, creativity and the ability to think, understand and sense what you are doing,” she said.