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Lily Canter

“Should you be out here in such rough conditions?” is the kind of patronising comment women in outrigger canoeing still hear regularly – especially when they are part of a crew whose members are all above the age of 50.
“The boat doesn’t care about your gender. It only cares that you show up and put in 110 per cent effort,” says Eva Lind-Mallo, 53, who was on a Masters team of six Hong Kong women who raced at the World Distance Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last year.
“And in our ohana [family], we care that we show up for each other.”
The team, which recently returned with a silver medal from the Takapuna Beach Cup in New Zealand, symbolises a global movement finally seeing women’s sport move from the sidelines to the forefront.
The continued revolution of women and sport is one of the Global Wellness Summit’s top wellness trend predictions for 2026. Its report says that women’s sport has reached a long-awaited tipping point, with huge cultural, commercial, social and wellness impact.
“Female athletes have unprecedented visibility as competitors, founders and marketing powerhouses, while fandom, media coverage and grass roots participation surges worldwide,” the report says. “Welcome to a world of new leagues and women’s sports bars – while ‘regular’ women of all ages flock to strength training and competitive sport, reframing fitness from aesthetics to capability and longevity.”

Why being a woman is never a disadvantage
For Lind-Mallo and her teammates, members of the International Va’a Federation’s Hong Kong outrigger canoe squad for women over 50, being a woman is never a disadvantage in their sport.
Outrigger canoeing involves six people paddling a special canoe with a float on one side to add stability in rough seas.
“Outrigger rewards technique, endurance and teamwork over brute strength,” Lind-Mallo says. “It’s about rhythm and reading the water, things women tend to be pretty good at. Also, strength-to-weight ratio works in our favour.
“When conditions get challenging, whether it’s temperature, wind, current, waves, you name it, we don’t give up. We persevere, and we support each other through it.”
Hong Kong now has seven outrigger canoe clubs and is attracting more women each year. Of the estimated 700-plus paddlers in the city, including those on dragon boats, about 40 per cent are women. Many regularly compete at world championships and race all over the world.

They are part of a growing wave of female athletes breaking expectations in sport. Much like Hong Kong-based open water swimmer Edie Hu who became the first woman to swim around Lantau Island, or hiker Jessica Guo, who walked 5,699 km (3,541 miles) from Mexico to Canada solo, they are not afraid to challenge patriarchal norms.
‘Rise to the challenge’
In some instances, women are outperforming their male competitors.
Clare Cheung, a Hong Kong-based events manager who moved to the city from Toronto, Canada, in 2016, found her lane in Hyrox, the hybrid racing format that pairs running with functional fitness stations.
She became hooked after taking part in the first APAC Hyrox event in Hong Kong, in 2022. It appealed for reasons that sound, on the surface, almost businesslike.
“I love the ability to set ‘smart’ goals in this sport and the capability to track your progress with consistent, standardised events worldwide,” she says, referring to a framework for goal-setting that ensures objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
“To date, I’ve competed in over 30 races, spanning all categories, and won first place in 11 of them.” Those wins include “mixed doubles” events in which each man-and-woman team chooses how to split the eight functional fitness stations between them.












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Crucially, she sees the cultural shift in women’s sport as personal fuel.
“It is immensely inspiring to witness female athletes compete and, in some instances, outperform their male counterparts. I feel so empowered to be part of a generation of women who are breaking barriers in sports,” she says.
Cheung, who competes in the 35-39 age category, describes Hyrox as “a predominantly male-conquered sport” and frames her response as both competition and provocation.
“I love rising to the challenge of being able to put up competitive race times that challenge the status quo,” she says.
“If anyone sees my Hyrox time and questions whether they are able to beat it, I’ve done my job, and I’ve made an impact on someone to try something new. I hope to inspire not only women, but men in Asia, or around the globe, to rise to the challenge of being better every day.”


Her ambition is to normalise a version of strength that does not require women to trade femininity for credibility.
“Through sport, I want people to understand the importance of endurance and strength training for health, longevity and self-confidence. I want to embody the ability for women to be feminine and strong, both at the same time.”
More positive action
For Imogen Short, 42, co-founder of Hong Kong non-profit organisation The Impact Collective, positive action is required to remove barriers for women.
As someone for whom sport has always been a constant, she knows just how powerful it can be, particularly as an incubator for confidence and leadership.
“I grew up playing football in the UK from the age of 12 and continued playing in Australia and Hong Kong, including at the Hong Kong Football Club. When I moved to Hong Kong around 10 years ago, I discovered trail running and completely fell in love with it,” she says. She is also a Hyrox competitor.
“Sport is where I learned how to handle pressure, how to lose with perspective, how to push through discomfort and how to operate as part of a team. Those lessons have shaped my professional life and leadership as much as my physical resilience.”

The Impact Collective was born out of a chance meeting when Short and Kate Wood – who serves on the board of Wise, a charity advancing women and girls in sports – were speaking at a She Runs Collective event. In conversation with audience member Jemma Daley, a competitive sailor, the idea of hosting a female-focused race came up.
“What began as a single idea quickly became something bigger. We centred it around the opportunities sport had given each of us personally, alongside the statistic that 94 per cent of women in C-suite [top corporate executive] roles played sport.”
The Impact Collective aims to address the gap in female and male participation in sport.
“Girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate of boys by 14. That’s not an individual issue, it’s systemic,” Short says.
The collective hopes to create “on-ramps” through workshops, inspirational talks and women-only races that make it feel like sport “belongs” to women, not that they must earn access to it.
Its inaugural race at Aberdeen Country Park last year sold out, with 350 female runners taking part.

“Many women feel self-conscious about pace, fitness, body image or simply whether they belong in certain sporting environments,” Short says. “A women-focused race changes the psychological environment. It allows first-timers to try without fear of judgment.”
And while she agrees women’s sport is becoming a main attraction, she is clear about the lag between performance and support. Media coverage and sponsorship do not always reflect that female athletes are performing at elite levels, she says.
“I’ve seen women’s teams receive less funding, poorer facilities and less pitch time. More commonly, it’s the quiet assumptions that women are recreational rather than competitive, that pace defines worth, that ambition in sport is somehow unfeminine. None of these moments makes headlines, but cumulatively they influence who stays and who leaves.”
So when someone asks a woman, “Should you be doing that?”, remind them that women are no longer waiting for permission to compete.
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These Hong Kong women are showing what’s possible in their sports

Hong Kong-based events manager Clare Cheung takes part in a Hyrox event. She has taken part in more than 30 Hyrox races to date, spanning multiple categories, and has won 11 of them. Photo: Hyrox HK

Eva Lind-Mallo (left) and members of the women’s Masters 50 Hong Kong outrigger canoeing team are pictured at the World Distance Championship in Rio de Janeiro in 2025. Photo: Mihaela Tudo

Members of Hong Kong’s women outrigger canoe team train in waters off Lamma Island. Photo: Mihaela Tudo

Imogen Short founded The Impact Collective to help remove barriers to sport for women. Photo: Imogen Short

Participants celebrate the first all-women race organised by The Impact Collective in Aberdeen Country Park, Hong Kong, in 2025. Photo: Instagram/theimpactcollective.hk

This 73-year-old Singaporean aikido black belt only started learning in her 60s

After just two years of aikido training, Chan’s health improved and she was finally able kneel and squat. 
Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Lily Chan is pictured at her family’s aikido dojo in Singapore. The 73-year-old took up aikido in her sixties and is now a black belt and sensei (instructor). Photo: Handout

Patrick and Lily Chan pose for a photo. For most of her life, Lily Chan had trouble kneeling and squatting. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Lily’s health improved as she progressed in her aikido training. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Lily and Patrick Chan with their two special needs sons – Enoch (in the red jacket) and Sean. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Our children come first, say Patrick and Lily Chan, pictured with their sons Enoch (in white) and Sean, who were both born with Down’s syndrome. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Aikido is a family affair for the Chans. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

Lily says persistence is key to overcoming setbacks and building resilience. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family

First woman to swim around Hong Kong’s Lantau Island defies her age

An elated Edie Hu shares an embrace with her open water swimming partner Simon Holliday after the two completed a 65km circumnavigation of Lantau Island on November 20, 2025 - a world’s first. Photo: Amy Miao

Hu poses with fellow swimmers Simon Holliday (left) and Brett Kruse while training for their swim around Lantau Island. Photo: Instagram/edieswimshongkong

Hu decided to swim the Moloka’i Channel while recovering in hospital from an appendectomy. Photo: Instagram/edieswimshongkong

Hu emerges from the water after her 65km circumnavigation of Lantau Island. Photo: Amy Miao

Hu treads water under a rainbow near Ala Moana Beach Park on Hawaii’s O’ahu island. In November, she became the first woman to swim across the Moloka’i Channel from O’ahu to neighbouring island Moloka‘i. Photo: Instagram/edieswimshongkong

Hu holds the Hong Kong bauhinia flag after completing the 45km crossing of the Moloka’i Channel. Photo: Instagram/edieswimshongkong

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Ria Xi with some new friends in the town of Dahab in South Sinai, Egypt. Photo: Instagram/whereisriax

Xi stops to refuel on her desert run on the Sinai Trail in Egypt. Photo: Instagram/whereisriax

Xi takes a selfie on the Tour du Mont Blanc that winds through France, Italy and Switzerland. Photo: Instagram/whereisriax

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David Wilson, whose Instagram handle is @soberdave, quit alcohol more than seven years ago after nearly four decades of regular drinking. Now he is helping others who want to stop and improve their health. Photo: David Wilson

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Jodi Clark in January 2023 (left) and in January 2026 (right). She has lost 38kg since she stopped drinking more than three years ago. Photo: Jodi Clark

Clark says she used to be a “middle-lane drinker”, someone who binged at the weekend but restricted drinking during the week. Photo: Jodi Clark

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

On International Women’s Day, we talk to women who reflect a growing global movement of women’s sport moving to the forefront


On International Women’s Day, we talk to women who reflect a growing global movement of women’s sport moving to the forefront.


These Hong Kong women are showing what’s possible in their sports

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}On International Women’s Day, we talk to women who reflect a growing global movement of women’s sport moving to the forefront

On International Women’s Day, we talk to women who reflect a growing global movement of women’s sport moving to the forefront