Name: Nhat Nguyen
Event: Badminton
Age: 24
Nhat Nguyen will hoping to follow in the footsteps of Scott Evans, who recorded Ireland's first Olympic victories in badminton at Rio 2016.
Nguyen (perhaps propitiously pronounced 'win') moved with his family to Dublin – via Cavan – from Vietnam when he was six and after taking up badminton became European Under-17 champion aged just 15.
Now ranked 44th in the world and qualifying ranked 19th, with one Olympics already under his belt Nguyen is hoping his better standing compared to Tokyo will allow him to compete.
The Clare Hall native attended St David's CBS in Artane, where he helped Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton run the school’s badminton team. His sister Tammy is a European bronze medallist in weight lifting who was aiming to qualify for Paris but was unable to secure a high enough world ranking.
Winning the Irish Open last winter was pivotal as his first international victory at senior level. In 2024 he made the quarter-finals of two Super 300 tournaments in Orleans and the German Open and was narrowly beaten in the last 16 at the Europeans Championships in April.
