Mother of four wins Y Ty 42km: 'I run with my legs, not with people's mouths'

At the Y Ty Golden Season 2026 race on September 6, mother of four Van Trang crossed the 42km finish line in 4 hours 26 minutes, becoming the women’s champion and finishing second overall, ahead of nearly all male runners. But the feat was overshadowed by online body-shaming comments about her chest. Trang responded directly: “I dare anyone to carry two grapefruits for 42km or 55km of mountain trails. I run with my legs, not with my appearance.” She said she uses negative comments as vitamin C for motivation, and urged people to look at female athletes’ effort first. The race featured more than 1,300m of cumulative elevation around 2,860m Mount Lao Than. She credited consistent training with gym, swimming, and auxiliary workouts. Trang refused to change her race outfit to avoid stares, saying comfort and safety matter more. Her next goals are the 70km at VMM and a 100km race at the end of the year. “Let performance speak,” she said. The lesson from her response is simple: body-shaming has no place when a woman is proving herself through performance.