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SCMP Reporter

LI FAI KNOWS all about being at the sharp end of life. The wushu athlete was 32 years old when she won a gold medal in taijiquan at the East Asian Games in Osaka, Japan, in May.

'It was the most unforgettable competition and the performance that I gave was the most satisfying,' Li, the mother of a six-year-old girl, says.

A World Championship gold medallist in 1993, Li not only focuses on her own training, but is also very active in nurturing young athletes. She believes in working for the future of the sport.

During the summer, she organised a three-month wushu training course - part of an eight-year project to develop potential athletes in time for the 2008 Olympics.

'I will offer those who perform remarkably well on the course a year's free training as encouragement,' she says.

'I'm already 32 years old. It's not that easy for me to keep in top form and there are more and more people catching up with me.

'So, I started promoting wushu and teaching all I've learned to other people. Sharing my knowledge with others is a happy thing!'

Born in Guilin in the mainland, Li came to Hong Kong with her parents when she was 10.

Li had started practising wushu at kindergarten. Wushu was not just a hobby, it was also a way of earning a living.

She was hired to perform at the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. She also did stunts later, the first for singer-actress Anita Mui Yim-fong in Tsui Hark's A Better Tomorrow III.

'Although I was offered a scholarship to study in Taiwan, I turned it down because I wanted to earn some money to continue learning wushu,' she explains. 'It's easy to earn money quickly by doing stunts, but it's also easy to get injured.'

She has been to Beijing and Guangzhou to learn wushu from veteran masters.

Li has written several books and produced VCDs about wushu and taijiquan. She also established a wushu centre in Jordan recently.

After pregnancy forced her withdrawal from the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Li stopped competing for several years. But two years ago, she returned to wushu.

'During the years I was away, I worked for TVB as a sports reporter during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. At the time, I had to do many interviews with medal-winning athletes and reporting reminded me of the passion I had as an athlete,' she says. 'So I decided to return to my life as a wushu athlete.'

Though capturing a medal in next year's Asian Games is Li's main target, her eight-year project is also crucial because wushu could become an event in the 2008 Olympics.

'These children could compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. They might even become sports stars,' she says.



Wushu champion aims to nurture young athletes in time for the Beijing Olympics