Vietnam women's volleyball star declines World Volleyball Championship due to gender issue

The Women's Volleyball World Championship (World Volleyball) begins today, Friday, August 22nd, in Thailand.

The Vietnamese women's national team had qualified for this historic tournament for the first time this year, and the driving force behind this was the team's star player, Nguyễn Thị Bích Tuyền.

However, ahead of the start of the World Volleyball Championships, Bich Tuyen decided to leave the national team on August 19, one day before the team was due to travel to Thailand. He explained on his Facebook page that the reason for this was "to avoid putting the team at unnecessary risk."

Although there was no explicit statement from her, it can be assumed that this is related to her gender issue.

This comes after two Vietnamese female athletes were disqualified from the U-21 World Championships earlier this month after testing showed they had male chromosomes, and the team's previous wins were confiscated.

Given Bich Tuyen's appearance and physical abilities, many people have questioned her gender, and the most likely reason for her decision to step aside is to avoid a similar situation to that at the U21 Championships (however, the truth of her case is unclear, so I would like to refrain from making any definitive statements about her gender here).

Bich Tuyen is 25 years old and was born in 2000. With her powerful spikes that she unleashes from her 188cm height, she is a key point scorer who has been supporting the recent success of the Vietnam women's national team.

In the second stage of the Southeast Asian women's tournament "SEA V.League 2025," held from August 8th to 10th this year, she single-handedly scored 45 points against the powerful Thai team, leading Vietnam to their first victory in the tournament and earning herself the MVP award.

Her absence will undoubtedly be a major blow to the Vietnamese women's team.

However, like many other sports, volleyball is heavily influenced by physique and physical ability, and since there are clear biological differences in such abilities between men and women, organizers will need to be careful about gender issues.

Photo: AVC