Hong Kong luck is in thanks to terrific Siobhan Haughey
- The silver medal-winning Olympic swimmer is the toast of the city where she was born and a loss for Ireland, the country that had tried to recruit her
The luck of the Irish – as the saying goes – did not hold when they approached Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey a few years ago to compete in Ireland’s colours. You can’t blame them for trying.
Her father is Irish and a great uncle, Charles Haughey, is a former Irish prime minister. But her heart is in the Hong Kong of her birth to a local mother and her upbringing.
Ireland’s disappointment has turned into Hong Kong’s good fortune in the form of its first medal in Olympic swimming. Haughey’s silver medal in the women’s 200 metres freestyle, following Edgar Cheung Ka-long’s gold in fencing, also completed the city’s best result at a Games since it first competed as a British colony in Helsinki in 1952.
It is a modest medal haul befitting a small population with a low sporting profile. But now Hong Kong’s luck in retaining Haughey’s allegiance may keep on giving, with her having a chance in the 100 metres and 50 metres freestyle events. Hopefully it will rub off on the city’s competitors in other events.
05:25
Hong Kong’s most successful Olympics ever as swimmer Siobhan Haughey wins silver at Tokyo 2020
Haughey’s story, from a little girl who hated swimming lessons – until a change of heart after she began beating the boys – to Wednesday’s podium finish is one of the best things to happen to Hong Kong during the worst of times. The city may have been relatively unscathed by the coronavirus, but the pandemic has done nothing for battered confidence after it was bitterly divided by social unrest and anti-government protests in 2019.
Sporting and non-sporting minded alike can only lament the fading of a dream of a second gold medal in two days, as Australia’s new swimming sensation, Ariarne Titmus, headed Haughey in the final stages of the 200 metres and touched the wall first by less than a second, after the Hongkonger had led for most of the race. Pundits attributed Titmus’ stamina to her prowess over 400 metres, in which she had already won gold.
Let’s hope that theory works in Haughey’s favour when she drops back to 100 metres!
In these uncertain times, the heroics of Cheung and Haughey, like those of gold medal windsurfer Lee Lai-shan 25 years ago, should inspire Hongkongers because the recipe is an open secret of success in life – perseverance, self-denial, hard work and dedication.
