Profile | Paris Olympics: who is fencer Vivian Kong? Hong Kong’s latest gold medallist has been chasing history since she was 11

Hong Kong épéeist Vivian Kong Man-wai had been on the podium for every major tournament in which she had competed, except the Olympics – until now. On Saturday, the women’s world No 1 made history by becoming only the third Hongkonger to have Olympic gold draped around her neck. Windsurfer Lee Lai-shan was the first at Atlanta 1996 and fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long struck gold in Tokyo in 2021. But Kong’s medal, Hong Kong’s first at the Paris Olympics, came with added significance, because it was the first time that the city had secured a podium finish at two consecutive Games. A flag bearer for the city’s delegation at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018, the 30-year-old has long been one of the city’s best, but Paris was third time lucky after journeys to both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 both turned out to be fruitless ones. Before she flew to Paris, Kong vowed that she was not just “participating” in the French capital. Born on February 8, 1994, Kong moved to Vancouver with her family at the age of two. She returned to Hong Kong for good four years later, but that did not stop the Canadian government from much later inviting her to naturalise and represent the country. Kong declined, saying she wished to represent her birthplace. As she was an only child, Kong’s parents arranged a wide range of extracurricular activities for her when she was young. From ballet to ice skating, and from drawing to playing guzheng, Kong did it all, but it was taekwondo that she fell in love with – until she found fencing at the age of 11. It took her only two years to become the Under-17 National Championships winner in China, at the age of 13. Obsessed with studying since she was a child, Kong, who went to ESF’s Beacon Hill School before graduating from Sha Tin College, was persistent in striking a balance between revision and daily training. Finishing her homework on the plane while travelling overseas to compete became a norm for the young fencer, and Kong’s efforts paid off as she scored 41 out of 45 in her International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. She was admitted to Stanford in the United States in 2012, majoring in International Relations, and then went on to pursue her Masters of Law at the Renmin University of China in Hong Kong before undertaking a Juris Doctor law degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Growing up without siblings, Kong would play chess with herself when she was bored. Over the years, whenever Kong was on the road, she would grab a biography at the airport bookshop to read on the plane. She was reading Michelle Obama’s book before she won her first World Cup gold in Havana in January 2019. Two weeks later, Kong read Maria Sharapova’s biography before losing in the first round at the Grand Prix in Doha – she said she did not want to see that book ever again. Ahead of the 2016 Olympics, Kong took a sabbatical from school to focus on her fencing and train with the best players overseas. When she made her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, Kong had only two World Cup bronze medals to her name, but by the time she made history for the city by reaching the quarter-finals at the Tokyo Games five years later, Kong needed a much bigger trophy cabinet: having won a couple of World Cup and Asian Championships gold medals, as well as a World Championships bronze in the interim. However, the road to excellence on the piste for Kong was far from smooth sailing. She tore her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the July before the 2017 World Championships. To speed up her recovery, Kong became a vegetarian and resumed training just three months after surgery, before returning to action in November. It never rains but it pours. After hitting the top of the world rankings for the first time in her career in March 2019, Kong tore her right ACL while becoming the first Hongkonger to ever stand on the podium at the World Championships in Budapest in July. But even the grade two-injury would not deter the veteran fencer. In the years that followed, Kong became the world No 1 fencer for the third time in May 2023, before defending her Asian Championships crown – her third title – in Wuxi a month later. In 2024, Kong has been in sizzling form leading up to the Paris Games, picking up three Grand Prix and World Cup titles in Doha, Barcelona and Fujairah. “I’ve won a title every time I made it to the semi-finals this season – I’ve never had that determination before,” she said before the Games. “I hope I will be able to play well even if I am not in my best condition. I must pay attention to all details and study myself like my opponents would me.” Octavian Zidaru, the city’s épée head coach, said before Paris 2024 that he believed his pupil had enough experience and maturity and was ready to make an impact in Paris. How right he was.

Profile | Paris Olympics: who is fencer Vivian Kong? Hong Kong’s latest gold medallist has been chasing history since she was 11

An only child and obsessive student, the world No 1 épéeist had won medals everywhere except the Olympics – until now