Breaking the barriers: how Hong Kong swimmer Yvette Kong beat depression to reach Olympics
Twenty-three-year-old quit the sport for a time before seeking help to cope with pressure imposed by never-ending quest for academic and sporting results
After the spate of student suicides this year, the pressure on young people in the city – and the lack of awareness about mental health issues – has never been clearer.
Yvette Kong Man-yi knows all about that pressure.
Kong was seen from a young age as one of Hong Kong’s most promising swimmers, but at 23 is only now living up to her potential, qualifying for her first Olympics after a battle with depression that at one point saw her quit the sport.
She went into a spiral of panic and self-sabotage after failing to live up to expectations at the 2010 Youth Olympics and Asian Games and missing qualification for the London Olympics (by a mere 0.1 seconds).
A scholarship athlete at Berkeley University, at one point the mental anguish was so great she ran away from qualification meetings minutes before she was due to get in the pool.
Only after Teri McKeever, Berkeley’s hugely experienced swim coach, urged her to seek professional help, did Kong start to get to the root of her issues.
She is now swimming full-time as part of the University of Edinburgh’s team, thanks to a Hong Kong Sports Institute grant secured by dint of a relay medal at the last Asian Games (“I was very lucky,” she says).