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Mike Chan

Siobhan Haughey may have cemented her place as Hong Kong’s best athlete ever after capturing yet another Asian Games gold medal on Tuesday.
Touching the wall first in 52.45 seconds – ahead of a pack of swimmers at least three years younger – to defend her women’s 100m freestyle title successfully pushed Haughey’s gold medal count at the regional multi-sports bonanza to four, after she also retained the 200m freestyle crown she won in Hangzhou the previous day.
From showcasing to the world her immense talent in the water at the World Junior Championships in Dubai in 2013, the Hongkonger has gone on to scoop medals, one after another, across every major event, for 13 years and counting.
The five-time world champion is the city’s outright leader in Olympic medals with four – two silver and two bronze – from two Games in Tokyo and Paris.
“I am very happy to win another gold medal, not to mention that my family was watching from the stands,” Haughey, who will turn 29 at the end of next month, said.
“There was a special meaning for me to remain on top of the podium in back-to-back Games, especially after I’ve been through quite a lot over the past few years.
“I have had an extended break, then there were injuries, and it’s not only that, because when you look at the current trends in the swimming world – where more and more very young teenagers are swimming incredibly fast and achieving impressive results – it’s truly not easy to get back to, and maintaining that level after a few years.”

Whether Haughey could be considered the best athlete Hong Kong has ever had is a topic that would certainly spark endless debate.
Elite fencer Cheung Ka-long would also be right up there with a pair of Olympic gold medals from Japan and France, as well as his podiums at the Asian and World Championships, and the junior world championships crown.
And, of course, former windsurfer Lee Lai-shan would be the pioneer of them all. A maiden Olympic gold medal for Hong Kong in 1996, two Asian Games crowns and a trio of world championship titles speak volumes.
Whichever way the debate goes, what is clear is that the difficulty in maintaining competitiveness at the highest level is something beyond most people’s comprehension.
“The changes in me had to be the most difficult part, be it my mindset or my recovery ability,” Haughey said. “So the training methods I used in the past, I simply couldn’t go back to using them.
“The issue is that, while those past methods were what got me to this peak level, my body really can’t keep up with that kind of training any more.
“We have to keep changing and finding new ways – by reducing the training volume – to figure out how to maintain this high level of performance while swimming less.”
While athletes usually leave the adjustments of training regimes to their coaches, the decorated swimmer from Hong Kong said there were also mental difficulties to deal with.
“My recovery is not as fast now, plus the injuries, so every time I think of needing or wanting to make up for the training I missed, there were a lot of mental adjustments required too,” she said.
“It’s really about how to wait patiently for my recovery, without feeling like ‘Oh no, I haven’t trained much over the past two weeks, how am I going to catch up?’
“So there were a lot of changes involved, both physically and mentally.”
The man helping Haughey deliver world-class performances in the autumn of her career said his disciple was merely on the same path as any athlete as they age.
“With any athlete, as they age, recovery becomes more important. They don’t bounce back from things; we all know this as we get older,” said coach Tom Rushton, who started working with Haughey after the Tokyo Games.
“Life becomes a little bit harder, but at the same time, you become a little bit smarter and wiser about how to manage things. The younger athletes in my group do 10 sessions per week in the water, and that’s what Siobhan did between Tokyo and Paris.
“Now, the older athletes are shifting down to nine sessions, and that was a change we made after the [last] Olympics. It’s about focusing on the volume of fast swimming, not the volume of total swimming.”
Keeping herself motivated, after winning almost everything there was to win, was another thing to master, and Haughey said it was not about achieving “a specific time or winning a particular title” now.
“The focus now is more on the race strategies and their execution, and making sure I still enjoy my daily training and competition to the fullest,” the 28-year-old said. “I will be giving myself so much pressure if it’s a time-sensitive target.

“Say, if you plan to manage a 51-second swim, but you don’t have a plan of how you’re going to do it, you’d get stuck easily, so I’d rather focus on what changes I could make.”
Haughey also said “I would have quit a long time ago” had she not felt motivated enough to want to go to the swimming pool after waking up.
“I am motivated by the process, not the result. This is how I have always thought, only even more so in recent years,” said the veteran swimmer. “When you were younger, without many medals or records, you were always chasing a time standard and that worked back then.
“But at this stage, I prefer not to put so much pressure on myself to maintain my training and competition schedule. So instead of focusing on results, it’s better to focus on what can be done each day.
“As for Los Angeles, I do have some ideas in my mind, but right now the focus is still on the Asian Games.”


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Siobhan Haughey stakes claim as Hong Kong’s greatest athlete after fourth Asian Games title

Siobhan Haughey, who won the Asian Games 100m freestyle on Tuesday, has won medals across every major event for 13 years and counting. Photo: Robert Ng

Siobhan Haughey beat a much younger field to defend her Asian Games 100m freestyle title. Photo: Robert Ng

Siobhan Haughey says she is now “motivated by the process, not the result”. Photo: Robert Ng

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Hongkonger says 100m freestyle title defence has ‘special meaning’ after injuries, need to change training regime in face of age, new rivals


Hongkonger says 100m freestyle title defence has ‘special meaning’ after injuries, need to change training regime in face of age, new rivals.


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Siobhan Haughey stakes claim as Hong Kong’s greatest athlete after fourth Asian Games title

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hongkonger says 100m freestyle title defence has ‘special meaning’ after injuries, need to change training regime in face of age, new rivals

Hongkonger says 100m freestyle title defence has ‘special meaning’ after injuries, need to change training regime in face of age, new rivals