From watching Bruce Lee movies to winning wing chun gold: wushu brings Yvette Kong serenity in the swimming pool
The Hong Kong record holder credits southern China martial art with helping to save her swimming career and Olympic dream
What is the relationship between Chinese martial arts and swimming? Olympian Yvette Kong Man-yi may be best-placed to demonstrate.
The 25-year-old, who represented Hong Kong at the Rio Games two years ago after becoming one of the few local swimmers that made the “A” qualifying standard, recently won a gold medal in wing chun at the Hong Kong International Wushu Championships.
“I liked wushu since a very young age, I was always play-fighting with my brothers and cousins and watching Bruce Lee movies,” said Kong, who is preparing for the Asian Games in Indonesia this summer.
“When I was young, my mother once ordered me to learn ballet because of cultural stereotype but I quit after two lessons. I was simply too active and always had wushu on my mind.”
Kong then took up swimming, which she has been involved with for over two decades, and she is the Hong Kong record holder in four events – 50-metre, 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke, and the women’s 4x100-metre medley relay when they won bronze at the 2009 East Asian Games in Kowloon Park.