VietNamNet Bridge – “Doll” Ngan Thuong was informed of winning a ticket to the Olympics 2012 in London last night, April 19.

Thuong is the third Vietnamese gymnast who gets a card to the largest sports event of the world and the third Vietnamese athlete who will attend the Olympics so far.

Thuong is also the third female athlete in Southeast Asia who receives an Olympic ticket, after Vietnamese gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh and Singaporean athlete Heem Wei Lin.

According to the International Gymnastics Federation, Ngan Thuong and Jordan Rae of New Zealand won the two tickets to the Olympics at the qualifier round in London in January.

At the qualifier tournament in London this January, Ngan Thuong did not recover fully from injury so she scored only 41,466 points, much less than her 52,100 points that she had at the Olympics 2008. However, she still won a ticket because many top gymnasts were injured.

Ngan Thuong is a senior gymnast of Vietnam. She won five gold medals at the 22nd, 23rd and 24th Southeast Asian Games. At Olympics 2008, she was accused of using doping and was banned from international competitions for one year. This is the first time a gymnast detected to take doping at the Olympics. Thuong took diuretic to lose weight.

After the suspension, Ngan Thuong returned, with wounds and went downhill. She managed to say goodbye to her career before the SEA Games 2011 but she was convened to continue because of the shortage of qualified athletes of the national gymnastics team. At the games, she won two gold medals.

S. Tung