It took less than a minute, 52.27 seconds to be exact, for their faith to be repaid, and they cheered to the rafters in their hundreds in malls in Kwun Tong, West Kowloon and Causeway Bay.

“I’m very excited right now,” Ying Lok, an 18-year-old student, said. “That’s another medal for Hong Kong! Siobhan has done so well. I can’t wait to watch her performance in the future.”

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor praised Haughey’s “outstanding result”.

“I’d like to thank people in Hong Kong for waking up so early to watch my race, for their support, even though many of them may not have been interested in sport before,” she said.

But that first silver medal, and the four Asian records she set, changed her approach to the rest of her time in Tokyo.

“I was trying to have fun and have a good time and swim my best time, and getting the silver was like, ‘Oh! Yay!’,” Haughey said.

“The 200 free has always been my main focus and after getting the silver from that event ... it definitely took some pressure off heading into the 100.”

She could have made it three from three this weekend after just coming through her heat in the 50m, with a rather pedestrian time of 24.75, which was just enough to get her into the top 16 for Saturday morning’s semi-finals.

But minutes after the heat, Hong Kong officials announced her decision not to continue.

“Siobhan pulled her back after the 200m final, and after the 100m final and 50m heat it was getting worse,” the team said in a statement. “She will scratch her semi-final tomorrow [Saturday] to safeguard her health and well-being.”

Despite her injury, Haughey’s final act in Tokyo was to swim the butterfly leg for Hong Kong in the 4x100m medley. The team had previously sacrificed their chances in the 4x200m free to support her medal push in the 100m, and she earlier dedicated that silver to them.

By the time the next Games come around in Paris in three years, Haughey will be 26, only slightly younger than 27-year-old Australian Emma McKeon, who set an Olympic record time of 51.96 in denying the Hongkonger gold on Friday.

Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Haughey finished 13th in the 200m free. She has won multiple medals at the Asian Games, East Asian Games, and Summer Youth Olympics.

“I feel like I was always so close,” she said, “so now finally being able to medal means so much.”

Born four months after Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, she was raised in the city until leaving for the US to attend the University of Michigan. She graduated in 2019 with a psychology degree and was a 15-time Big Ten Conference champion.

Haughey paired blue Michigan shorts with her cream Hong Kong team jacket to attend the medallists’ news conference. She answered several questions in Cantonese, one of three languages she speaks fluently, along with Mandarin and English.

Haughey continued training at Michigan until the coronavirus pandemic began last year, when she returned to Hong Kong. Her US-based coach Rick Bishop emailed her training sets daily.

A second Olympics has taught her high-level intricacies such as how to recover between races, manage stress, and reset her emotions between events.

“It definitely gives me even more confidence moving forward knowing that I can compete with the best in the world,” she said. “There’s a lot to learn from this experience.”

Tokyo Olympics: Games over for Haughey - day 7, as it happened

Haughey’s joy was in stark contrast to that of mixed doubles pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet, who, in Tse’s final Olympics, fell agonisingly short in their bid for a bronze medal on Friday.

Defeat at the hands of Japanese duo Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino was tough to take, although Tse said ultimately the pair “were not good enough”.

“I wouldn’t say I’m the greatest, but it’s definitely crazy to think that … I don’t even know what to say,” she said. “I’m just here trying to have a good time, and the fact that having a good time also means having great results is too much fun.”

Who is Hong Kong Olympic silver medallist Siobhan Haughey?

The idea of fame and instant recognition does not appear to sit comfortably with one of Hong Kong’s newest sporting celebrities, and Haughey said she was happy not be “part of the craziness”.

“I kind of like the fact that all of this is happening while I’m not in Hong Kong so I can see all the glory in the distance. I don’t think I’ll get used to it,” she said.

“I still have a few more days here to just enjoy this with my teammates and coaches.”

Already a popular pastime in Hong Kong, Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, president of the Hong Kong Swimming Association, believed the sport would get a major boost after Haughey’s success.

“Swimming is very popular in Hong Kong already, but we are quite sure more people will be trying to join to become the second, third or fourth Siobhan,” said Wong, who attended two Olympic Games in 1968 and 1972 as a swimmer.

“But, of course, it won’t be that easy. Siobhan is a very talented swimmer, an athlete with a strong fighting spirit who always wants to do better. Also she is a very disciplined person.

“Once she has set her targets, she won’t easily get carried away but being hundred per cent focused to accomplish it. Of course, she has also taken advantage of competing overseas against some of the world’s best swimmers which has definitely improved her results.”

Who are Hong Kong’s main medal hopes at Tokyo Olympics?

Wong said the association would discuss getting more financial support, especially for sending swimmers overseas for competition.

“You can’t get big improvements by competing with swimmers who are of a similar level as you, but sending swimmers to overseas competitions will involve a lot more people.

“But we hope after Siobhan’s success, the government will seriously consider providing more funding for overseas competitions,” he said.

Separately, police had said they were investigating a crowd at the APM mall on Monday that booed at the Chinese national anthem when it was played at Cheung Ka-long’s win for suspected violation of the national anthem ordinance and the national security law. Similar ordinances exist for the national and Hong Kong flags.

On Friday night, officers announced they had arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of breaching the national anthem law by booing March of the Volunteers. The suspect, a reporter from online news portal Freeman Express, was detained in Kwai Chung.

Earlier, force insiders said officers quietly fanned out in shopping centres across the city on Friday morning, a move intended to prevent any potential booing of the national anthem during the live broadcast of Haughey’s swim.

Additional reporting Chan Kin-wa