Paris Olympics: why Hong Kong cyclist Ceci Lee faces psychological ‘mountain’ before Games
- Coach warns 23-year-old risks wasting her talent, and says issue is ‘very complex, but we will deal with it’
Paris-bound Hong Kong cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing’s talent is at risk of being wasted because of long-standing performance anxiety, her coach fears.
Lee will make her Olympic debut in the one-day omnium event this summer but acknowledged it was hard trying to follow 2012 and 2020 bronze medallist Sarah Lee Wai-sze as Hong Kong’s great cycling hope.
Lee said she was “feeling some pressure”, after agreeing on a top-10 target for Paris with Hong Kong cycling head coach Herve Dagorne.
The 23-year-old works with a sports psychologist at Hong Kong Sports Institute, where she focuses on managing race strategies and tactics rather than her acknowledged difficulties with handling internal and external expectations.
This week, Dagorne likened Lee to a striker whose confidence evaporates in front of goal, after the rider slipped from first to eighth in the closing two kilometres of this month’s Asian Road Race Championships. He added that Lee had not overcome the psychological limitations that led to mistakes in a number of track events this year.
“She is physically good, [psychology] is the detail that makes the difference,” Dagorne said. “For her, it seems like a mountain.
