Mission Impossible? Few thought Lee Lai-shan could win in Atlanta, so there is every chance she can repeat in the twilight of her career
The clock is ticking for Lee Lai-shan. Her biological clock, that is. Hong Kong's golden girl is adamant this is her final hurrah on the world's biggest sporting stage, for her maternal instincts are kicking in and she wants to start a family with her husband, Sam Wong Tak-sum.
San San wants to have a baby after the Games. A week after the Olympics end on August 29, she will turn 34. San San knows time is short. This next fortnight will probably be her last major international event. 'As a woman and a wife, I would love to have children. I want a family and I think the time to start one will be soon after the Olympics,'' said San San recently. 'This is my last Olympics. I will be too old by the time the 2008 Games take place in Beijing.''
It would be a dream, realised once again, if she can finish with an Olympic medal in her grasp. That would be a fitting way to end an illustrious career that has spanned 14 years and four Olympic Games. It would invoke memories of that famous day, eight years ago in Atlanta, when San San won Hong Kong its first Olympic medal, and that a gold too.
On August 29, 1996, San San sailed to a windsurfing gold in Savannah, Georgia. It was, and remains, Hong Kong's most momentous sporting achievement. Sadly, it has not been replicated at the Olympics by other local athletes.
San San tried to repeat it herself, four years ago in Sydney. But an under-prepared campaign - she had completed a bachelor's degree in sports administration at the University of Canberra just eight months before the Olympics - saw her way off the pace set by the rest of the field. San San finished sixth in Sydney. Dreams of a second medal sank into the scenic waters off Rushcutters Bay.
