After her death, Vinh, along with his younger sister who was a toddler, moved with their father to the capital in Hanoi, where they lived in a small building.
In the military, he was known to be very skilled with a gun and he was frequently sent to participate in various shootings competitions, often achieving good results and prestige for his unit.
In the same year, Hoang Xuan Vinh won his first medal as a professional athlete—a bronze in the team event at the 1999 National Cup in the men’s air pistol category held in Hai Phong.
At the 2003 SEA Games in Vietnam, he secured another gold medal in the men’s team air pistol event.
He became the most successful shooter on the Vietnamese team at that game, winning three gold medals and leading in individual achievements.
[3] During the 2010 Asian Games, while competing in the 25m revolver event, he performed excellently in the slow-fire round, leading the scoreboard.
However, in the rapid-fire round, his nerves got the best of him, leading to a crucial mistake on the final shot, causing him to drop from first place to 13th overall.
[8] At the 2013 ISSF World Cup in South Korea, Hoang Xuan Vinh competed in the men’s 10m air pistol event, facing his rival, Wang Zhiwei, who had narrowly beaten him at the 2012 Olympics.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Hoang Xuan Vinh made history by winning the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Vietnam in the men’s 10 metre air pistol event, defeating Brazil’s Felipe Almeida Wu.
Despite trailing before the last shot, Vinh focused intensely and scored 10.7 points, narrowly surpassing Almeida Wu to win the gold medal.
During the final rounds of the 10m air pistol competition, the tension reached its peak in the last two shots as it became a head-to-head battle for the gold medal between Xuân Vinh and Felipe Almeida, after all other competitors were directly eliminated.
In that round, Xuân Vinh did not perform well, scoring only 9.2 compared to his opponent’s 10.2, dropping to second place by 0.2 points.
Xuân Vinh, however, took his time, focusing intently on his target before spectacularly scoring 10.7, hitting just near the bullseye.
This incredible performance allowed him to claim the gold medal amid the respectful applause of his host-nation opponent.