Siobhan Haughey recently concluded a hugely impressive college career in the US. Photo: Handout
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https://scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/3003943/hong-kong-doesnt-need-resort-superstition-its-next-olympic-medals Hong Kong
Hong Kong doesn’t need to resort to superstition for its next Olympic medals, it has three of the world’s best heading to Tokyo
- Sarah Lee, Siobhan Haughey and Vivian Kong all offer genuine medal hopes in their respective sports
- Lee and Kong are the world’s best in their disciplines, while Haughey is improving dramatically
Sarah Lee Wai-sze will be gunning for Olympic glory again in Tokyo next year. Photo: Handout
It is coming up on 23 years ago that windsurfer Lee Lai-shan swept her way into the history books by becoming Hong Kong’s first Olympic medallist. She did it in some style, too, by making that medal gold. We waited until Athens 2004 before Ko Lai-chak and Li Ching claimed the city’s second Olympic medal, winning table tennis doubles silver.
Now, it’s been seven years since cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze whizzed to a third Olympic medal for Hong Kong when she claimed keirin bronze in London.
With Tokyo on the horizon, there are signs there for the superstitious to cling to: there were (a lucky) eight years between each of those medals and Tokyo 2020 will complete the next eight-year cycle; the sequence has gone gold-silver-bronze – is it, then, time to prepare the garland for Hong Kong’s second gold medallist?
Or how about that each previous Olympic medal triumph has involved a Lee/Li? OK, that one’s a bit of a stretch.
We could cling to the serendipitous circumstances surrounding previous Olympic glories and will another medal to the city, or we could simply look at the facts: Hong Kong, for perhaps the first time ever, has three bona-fide, world-class Olympic medal prospects bound for Tokyo next August.
As we bear down on the 2020 Games, the Hong Kong public might be forgiven for – dare I say it – actually expecting an Olympic medal.
The past 12 months have marked pinnacle points in the careers of Sarah Lee, swimmer Siobhan Haughey and fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai. 
World number one Vivian Kong is on course for an Olympic medal. Photo: Augusto Bizzi
Lee, the elder stateswoman of the trio, will almost certainly be making her final Olympic appearance (at 33), and is assured of her place in Hong Kong sporting folklore should she podium again next August.
She has arguably happened upon the rudest form of her fine career in the past 18 months.
What a turnaround it’s been for the Kowloon native. Less than three years ago in Rio, she reached her personal nadir when she crashed out in the semi-final of her pet event, the keirin. In a moment, the hopes of a whole city – perhaps even the wider nation – came crashing down.
For weeks afterwards the talk was of retirement. Lee said she needed an extended break to figure out if she could muster the motivation to launch herself back into another Olympiad.
How the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee must be delightedthat she was allowed time off to rest and recuperate, because now, a little under 17 months out from the next Games, Lee is untouchable at the pinnacle of women’s keirin.
Her gold medals at the Asian Games in Indonesia last year and four gold medal showings in this year’s track world cup – part of an incredible 43-race unbeaten run – can testify to that.
There was one man who didn’t lose his head in the post-Rio meltdown when it seemed that Hong Kong’s best medal hope had evaporated. 
Sarah Lee claimed bronze, Hong Kong’s third Olympic medal, at the London 2012 Games. Photo: Felix Wong
“As the 2020 Olympic Games [approach], I believe Lee Wai-sze can win a gold,” said Hong Kong cycling coach Shen Jinkang in 2016. Crucially, Shen is still a part of Lee’s set-up.
Then there’s Haughey. Just last week she closed the collegiate chapter of her rapidly improving career. Her college spell with the feted Michigan Wolverines in the US will be remembered as one of the most promising that the Ann Arbor Big 10 programme has seen in recent years. She ended her time with them as the stand-out performer in her team, and with an equal-best third place at the hugely competitive NCAA Division I Championships.
It could have been a swansong notable for an elusive gold at the NCAAs, save for a judge’s poor decision in the heats of the 200-metre individual medley when she was wrongly disqualified on a technicality.
Still, Haughey didn’t allow that disappointment to affect her mission of dragging Michigan to the podium and she “swam angry” driving her team on.
She walks away from Michigan with a wealth of achievements, including Big 10 records, numerous swimmer of the championship awards, as well as All-American team nods, and is surely in any conversation about potential Olympic champions in her pet discipline, despite the enormity of that task. 
Siobhan Haughey won her heat of the 200m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Photo: AP
As an 18-year-old, Haughey sent ripples throughout global swimming when she cruised into the semi-finals of the 200m freestyle at the Rio Olympics and finished a hugely creditable 13th in the event, setting a Hong Kong national record along the way.
Meanwhile, Kong has crept her way to the zenith of world fencing. It has been a steady climb, rather than a lightning strike.
Kong has picked up impressive world cup golds in Havana and Barcelona as well as silver in Tallinn, but it has been a campaign pockmarked by almost as many disappointments as triumphs.
The 25-year-old is no stranger to being foiled on the international scene. After becoming the first female Hong Kong fencer to strike gold at the Asian Championships last year, she fell agonisingly short at the Asian Games, losing out in the semi-finals of both the team and individual épée events. She has also hit a rough patch since ascending to the top of the world rankings in recent weeks. 
Vivian Kong has had a mixed campaign, but has risen to the top of the women’s épée world rankings. Photo: Devin Manky
Regardless, with the final lap of the Olympiad about to get under way, Kong is the top-ranked épée fencer in the world and will surely be eyeing gold in Tokyo.
How thrilling then, that Hong Kong could double its Olympic medal haul in one fell swoop in Japan.
The hope is that the trio hasn’t peaked too soon and we’re not forced to revert to fortune telling or “da siu yan” (villain hitting) under Canal Road Flyover in Causeway Bay to figure out where our next Olympic medal will come from.