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‘Enjoy every moment’: from fencing to Fashion Week, meet Olympic athlete Nicholas Edward Choi, who uses style to de-stress

  • Choi started fencing aged nine, went professional at 18, and qualified to represent Hong Kong at the 2012 Olympics when he was 19
  • He retired from fencing in 2019 to focus on travel and fashion, which he has loved since childhood. The pandemic paused his plans, but now he’s fencing again

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Hong Kong Olympic fencer Nicholas Edward Choi dressed in a Chanel jacket at an event at the K11 mall and art space in Kowloon, Hong Kong in December 2022.

As a young child, Nicholas Edward Choi saw himself following a conventional Hong Kong career path. “I always imagined myself going into Central, with all the fancy office buildings,” he tells the Post.

Little did he know that he would begin fencing by the age of nine, let alone that he would eventually become a professional fencer, on track to represent Hong Kong in his second Olympic Games.

Choi, who was raised in Hong Kong by a Korean-Chinese father and a Filipino mother, came to fencing as an extracurricular activity at Chan’s Creative School in Yau Yat Chuen, Kowloon.

Where others opted for football, swimming, basketball or badminton, he was drawn to fencing’s more eccentric style. “For me, it was so cool. You get to use a sword, you’re in all white, poking your opponent – like Star Wars, but real life,” he says.

Nicholas Edward Choi during the Hong Kong Open Fencing Championships in 2022. Photo: Nicholas Edward Choi
Nicholas Edward Choi during the Hong Kong Open Fencing Championships in 2022. Photo: Nicholas Edward Choi

His parents encouraged the hobby; the expectation that it would boost his chances of getting into a good secondary school certainly helped.

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