ExclusiveHong Kong’s Haughey nearly quit after Tokyo Olympics because she feared that was her peak

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey has revealed she considered retiring after the Tokyo Olympics, but decided to continue swimming after realising she could still go on to conquer the world.

The double Olympic silver medallist said that after the Games in 2021 she thought she had reached her peak, and did not want to head into another one if she could not swim faster.

But this month, the 26-year-old will dive into her third Olympics having added four world titles, a world record and six Asian Games medals to her trophy cabinet since that historic achievement.

“Honestly, after Tokyo, I thought I was done with swimming. I thought of retiring,” Haughey told the Post from her training camp in Slovakia. “I was worried that Tokyo was my peak, and I couldn’t improve or I couldn’t go any faster.”

Haughey also said before she became the first Hong Kong swimmer to win an Olympic medal, she did not think the sport she loved would be a long-term career.

“It just felt very normal that I should be done after Tokyo,” Haughey said. “I’d been swimming for so long and [thought] maybe after that, I’ll go back to school or find a job somewhere.