Tokyo Olympics: young Hong Kong swimmers inspired by Siobhan’s Haughey’s silver medal – ‘she made history in the pool’
- Young swimmers were in awe watching the 200m freestyle at the South China Athletic Association’s pool where Haughey’s career started
- Hong Kong’s next generation of talent in the pool now feel like they can strive for medals too - ‘there is a chance, and this is our goal too’
“It was very exciting, because she made history in the pool,” said Au-yeung, who is 13 and started swimming at the age of eight.
Au-yeung was watching the race along with other swimmers, coaches and families at the South China Athletic Association’s pool in Causeway Bay, where Haughey first started training at the age of four.
Au-yeung’s friend and fellow swimmer Wilson Chan, from the Harry Wright International Swim School, said watching Haughey win was a special moment.
“She is the first Hong Kong swimmer to get a medal so I’m really proud of her,” said Chan, who added watching her makes him think he might have an opportunity to do the same thing. “There is a chance, and this is our goal too.”
‘Hard work has paid off,’ says Haughey after Tokyo silver
Eleven year-old Jonathan Bostan, who started swimming when he was nine and who focuses on the 100m freestyle, said it feels neat to know he is training in the same pool she used to train in.
“It was very cool because she swam for the same swim club that I swim for right now,” he said.
Chui Wai-chun, who coached Haughey when she was eight to nine years old in 2006, said she already showed promise at such a young age swimming alongside her sister Aisling at the SCAA.
Chui explained back then the focus was on increasing her aerobic capacity through specific lengths where they switched up the strokes.
“In training she worked very hard,” said Chui, who is a coach at the Harry Wright International Swim School. “At that age, before 10 years old we focused a lot on IM (individual medley) and middle distance freestyle to help them develop.”
Chui said Haughey was very outgoing and had lots of friends through swimming along with her sister.
“Her Chinese was very good so she would spend lots of time with her friends. I remember she had a birthday party when she was eight years old and all of her coaches and teammates showed up.”
Bev Wright, the team manager of the Harry Wright International Swim School, said Haughey has been a great ambassador over the years and always makes times to come and speak and spend time around the next generation of swimmers.
“I think it will be so inspirational,” said Wright. “And Siobhan has been inspirational all along the way, all the way through her development and as well as being a champion.
“She’s so humble, and will come back and talk to the swimmers, we’ve had many talks with her, about her lifestyle and her development and her mental capacity and getting the most out of her races so she’s a great inspiration and has been for many years.
“This is the first swimming medal for Hong Kong and also what I think you would call the first medal in a major sport. South China goes back a long way of course in producing swimmers and Siobhan has been learning here since she was about four years old in the learn to swim programme.”
