Paris Olympics: fencing champion Cheung Ka-long will have target on his back in France, Hong Kong coach says
- As the reigning Olympic and Asian Games champion, Cheung Ka-long is the one fencers will all want to beat in France
- The 27-year-old has three events before Paris, and will train at a local club in the French city to complete preparations for this year’s Games
Olympic champion fencer Cheung Ka-long is better than when he won gold in Tokyo, but has been warned he will have a target on his back at this summer’s Paris Games.
Hong Kong foil head coach Gregory Koenig said Cheung was “stronger in every aspect of his performance”, but said the 26-year-old’s title defence would be more complicated than three years ago.
And Koenig has implemented a series of measures to try to alleviate the pressure on his star athlete.
“He will go to these Games with a different status, and [rivals] thinking, ‘I want to defeat the Olympic champion’,” Koenig said. “Before, he was the underdog, nobody was waiting for him. When you are the Olympic champion you have the maximum pressure, and we have to see how he will handle it.
“He is strong enough, technically, tactically, and physically, so the only thing remaining is the psychological aspect. I am confident he can reproduce what he did in Tokyo, but fencing is unpredictable. It is not like swimming or running, where you fight against the time, we have a [direct] opponent.”
Cheung, Daphne Chan, the Asian Games women’s foil bronze medallist, and Cedric Ho Wai-hang, will form a skeleton Hong Kong fencing squad in France.
“I found a club in France where Cheung can have some training partners,” Koenig said. “We will stay there for about six days, then move into the Olympic Village, only three days before the female competition [Cheung competes the following day].”
To help lift some of the pressure of being in Hong Kong, Koenig said he would move Cheung to a training camp “where nobody knows him”, so he could have something of a normal life.
Hong Kong’s fencers have a busy build up to the Olympics, with an FIE Foil World Cup leg in the city starting this week. There is then a grand prix event in Shanghai later in May, with the Asian Championships the following month.
Koenig is planning to sandwich a home camp, featuring around 150 top-class foilists, between the World Cup and Shanghai events. After the mainland tournament, he is considering a “more relaxed” camp abroad.
Paris organisers have indicated Olympic Village accommodation will not be fitted with air conditioning, but Koenig pledged to use hometown connections to “have A/C in [Cheung’s] room within two hours, if he needs it”.
“I will always find a solution for him to be in the best situation,” Koenig said.
The 45-year-old said an Olympics in his home country “adds value” personally, while providing a chance to make his 12-year-old daughter, who will travel to the Games, “proud of me”.
“But wherever in the world the Olympics happens, another gold medal would be crazy and amazing,” Koenig said.
Koenig, who was awarded his third successive Hong Kong Coach of the Year honour on Saturday, operated his own business, which hired 200 people to sell ice cream on beaches, after his own competitive career.
“It was a very good experience, but there is nothing to compare to the emotion you can feel as an athlete or coach,” he said. “It is the only way to find this amazing emotion. I love the stress, I cannot tell you I don’t like it, because I wake up every morning for this.”
