Thi Ha Thanh Phan is the sole female competitor for Vietnam at this years World Championships.
Before the 2011 World Championships, 21 Thi Ha Thanh Phan was virtually unknown. She made her International debut at the 2009 World Championships where she did not rank high enough to qualify to any event finals.
Over the next few years she competed in Asian Games, Asian Championships and some World Cup Events, medal-ling on Beam and Vault at the 2010 Porto World Cup.
She qualified to the 2011 Worlds Vault in place. She came away with bronze in the final behind McKayla Maroney and Oksana Chusovitina. In doing so, she then qualified and earned Vietnam’s sole spot at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
She made history in 2011, winning a gold medal on vault at the Asian Games. This was Vietnam’s first ever gold medal on Vault at an Asian Games. The 2011 Southeast Asian Games were huge success for Vietnam with they’re top female and male gymnast (Do Thi Ngan Thuong) winning gold and silver in the AA respectively, with Thanh picking up medals on Vault (gold), Floor (gold) and Beam (bronze). Her 2011 success continued on into December when she won gold on Vault at the Toyota Cup competition with a score of 14.300.
At the London Olympic Games Phan fell short of a place in the Vault final and was forced to settle for third reserve . The rest of 2012 was relatively quiet. She competed at the Ostrava Challenge Cup in November placing first on Vault.
Phan has popped up here and there in competitions during 2013. At the Doha Challenge Cup she spared Romania’s Larisa Iordache of gold, scoring 14.825 against Iordache’s 14.675. She most recently competed at the Osijek Challenge Cup taking bronze behind the Netherland’s duo of Noel Van Klaveren and Chantysha Netteb,
For this years Worlds, she is so far registered as an All Around gymnast. Hopefully we will see her in the Vault final.