Yến Hai Nguyen: A Rock Climbing Enthusiast, SEA Games Athlete And Workshop Leader: Building Community Through Sporting Passion
From countryside roots to city life, Yen Hai Nguyen has always been active and engaged in sport. She’s now found her calling in rock climbing — building a community while competing at the SEA Games simultaneously.
Yen was active as a child and understood the importance of sport, from her Mekong Delta upbringing to arriving in the big city of Saigon. She’s played many sports over the years — including cheerleading, volleyball, and running — competing for her school. She credits good genetics and an ability to pick up sport quickly, something she realised at a young age. Once this dawned on her, she became keen to maximise her talents.
Six years ago, her life changed for the better when she first walked into a climbing gym. Despite her fear of heights, a previous partner convinced her to go. Yen’s “can-do” attitude toward anything sport-related meant she took on climbing happily and nonchalantly — which is important. Often, many of us hesitate and overthink when trying a new sport, particularly one as challenging as climbing. Yen had no such issue.
She was instantly hooked. She describes spending twelve hours a day on the climbing wall at first, fascinated and curious about every aspect of climbing — how to move flexibly, how to judge angles, and how to drag herself up the wall, regardless of the method.
Physically and mentally, climbing changed her. She understood the parallels between the climbing wall and life — whenever an obstacle appeared, flexible thinking and finding another way through was the solution. And so Yen would stay there, trying again and again until the task was completed. Then she would find the next one.
She understands the importance of belief and composure. Blocking out the world around her, slowly gripping rock after rock, boulder after boulder, almost in a meditative state of focus, is crucial to her success.
Yen’s commitment, dedication, and talent earned her a call several months ago informing her that she had been selected for the Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok on 14 December 2025. Her approach ahead of the competition was based on healthy enjoyment — looking forward to testing her limits without worrying too much about consequences or outcome — relieving her of the performance pressure that hinders so many athletes.
Buoyed and delighted, never thinking she could be an athlete, Yen made a brave move and quit her corporate job. She wanted to leave the safety net behind and focus on climbing and building a community around the sport she loves.
Yen runs social workshops on weekday evenings and weekend mornings, determined to encourage others to join her mission and share the same enthusiasm for climbing the wall. They’re often based at Skywalk Climbing Binh Thanh, among other venues.
For those arriving at the sessions, they can expect warm-up activities, team bonding and networking, games to acclimatise to climbing, and even cool-down yoga sessions — all with a supportive SEA Games athlete on hand to offer guidance.
As for her own aspirations, she’s healthily ready for the challenge post-SEA Games and throughout 2026. She’s confident, ready for competition, and realistic and positive about the outcome.
Her future is bright. From that first climb back in 2019 to representing her country in 2025, her story is one of perseverance, passion, authenticity, and critical thinking.
For rock-climbing enthusiasts based in Ho Chi Minh City, here’s Yen’s community link via WhatsApp, where all her events are shared:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/LIpHpjkDfyl7R2IcGWCNx0
To listen to our audio conversation, you can access the podcast here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1is5iycSuIk6WqwUuL5mdU?si=F2Az25C5RjOyXpmZrSJSgg
Yen’s LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yen-nguyen-8138b4307
