Ho Chi Minh City plans team housing for 10th National Sports Games, opening on 21 November

Ho Chi Minh City, the main host of Vietnam's 10th National Sports Games, is lining up accommodation for up to about 12,000 officials, coaches, athletes and delegates plus some 2,000 referees and support staff, the Vietnam Sports Authority's news site reported. Báo Văn Hóa meanwhile described the Games' electronic handbook, which counts down to the opening ceremony on 21 November at Saigon Riverside Park, while SGGP said the athletics and beach volleyball schedules and venues are now set.

Teams housed close to their venues

According to the Sports Authority, the city's Department of Culture and Sports is leading the work with the Department of Tourism and other agencies, and plans to mobilise hotels, guesthouses and other qualifying accommodation. Instead of putting every delegation in one area, the city is grouping hotels into clusters near competition sites such as Phú Thọ Arena, to cut travel times and ease pressure on its congested roads.

Nguyễn Nam Nhân, deputy director of the city's culture and sports department, said the cluster approach makes life easier for teams at a time when the city must stage events at many venues while keeping everyday urban life running. Hotels are being checked for room numbers, service quality, catering, hygiene and security. Each delegation gets a contact point with the organisers to handle headcounts, room allocation and meal changes, and shuttle buses and traffic coordination are part of the plan.

A digital handbook for teams and fans

Báo Văn Hóa said the handbook puts the full 29-day competition calendar in one place, with filters by date, sport and area and an Excel download. Its maps, linked to Google Maps, cover venues in Ho Chi Minh City and in the three co-host localities, Đồng Nai, Đồng Tháp and Hanoi. It also carries a medal table for the 36 participating delegations, the Games' logo, mascot and medal designs, and a 42-page anti-doping guide on sample collection, athletes' rights and duties, therapeutic use exemptions and the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2026 prohibited list. The Sports Authority said a single digital platform should reduce problems caused by scattered or late information.

National team athletes head back to their home units

SGGP reported that national athletics coaches have released team members to their home units to prepare, while still tracking their performance data. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, a deputy head of elite sport at the Sports Authority and general secretary of the Vietnam Athletics Federation, said essentially every top national-team athlete in each event is set to compete. Several of the 25 athletes who went to the 20th Asian Games are registered, including Nguyễn Thị Oanh, Quách Thị Lan and Tạ Ngọc Tưởng. The Army team topped athletics at the ninth Games in 2022 with 10 golds and is again rated a strong contender, with the host city, the People's Police, Hanoi, Hà Tĩnh, Đà Nẵng, Bắc Ninh, Đồng Nai and Ninh Bình also in the mix.

In beach volleyball, seven units have entered each of the men's and women's events, with two men's and two women's teams of 4-6 players per unit. Host Ho Chi Minh City, beaten by Khánh Hòa in both finals in 2022, is training at Hồ Tràm and targeting gold, with Asian Games player Nguyễn Lâm Tới leading the men's side, SGGP said. Khánh Hòa's pairs who won the national 2x2 titles in Đà Nẵng in May are seen as the main rivals.

Key dates ahead

Compiled by KBVN+ from the sources:

Athletics has 48 events at Thống Nhất Stadium from 22 November to 1 December, according to SGGP. Before the opening, the Sports Authority said, organisers still need to finalise housing, transport and catering and confirm each delegation's numbers, schedules and actual room needs. Some sports have already started, such as muay (Muay opens Vietnam's 10th National Sports Games in Ho Chi Minh City), and the off-stadium athletics schedule, including mountain cross-country, is covered in National Games athletics begins with mountain cross-country events.