Paris Olympics 2024: fencing coach Nicola Lu Min hopes Games debutant and former rival Cedric Ho ‘brings us surprises’
- Though a generation apart, and despite not representing Hong Kong together, the two were familiar foes in local tournaments
- Lu helped train the younger fencer to become Hong Kong’s first men’s épée representative at an Olympics in 12 years
Imagine fencing against a rival, and then guiding him to the Olympics and ending a 12-year drought for the city along the way, all the while making up for some decade-old regrets and unfulfilled dreams for oneself.
Such has been the bond that has been cemented between Hong Kong épée coach Nicola Lu Min and Cedric Ho Wai-hang, who is attending the Paris Olympic Games as a debutant this summer.
Lu and Ho were a generation apart and, despite not representing Hong Kong together, the two were familiar foes in local tournaments.
“Of course, I saw his weaknesses back then,” said Lu, who was born in Rome to an Italian father and a Chinese mother. “But I was not going to tell him because he was my opponent and that’s why I could survive.”
Able to speak in fluent Cantonese, Lu called it a day after donning the city’s flag one last time at the Incheon Asian Games in 2014. Ho was still a junior fencer then but the two were meant to reunite a couple of years later.
Tired of the corporate life, Lu walked away from the system and began coaching the city’s Paralympic épée team in 2019, before seeing his role extended to the épée team at the Hong Kong Sports Institute three years ago.
“It’s like a miracle [to turn Ho into an Olympian],” he said. “But all I did was focus on his strengths and remind him to be careful before we worked on the tactics and techniques.
“He put in a lot of effort and trained well. I could only share my experience with him and hoped he wouldn’t make my mistakes.