Siobhan Haughey hails Hong Kong’s young swimmers, who are ‘catching up’ with big nations
Hong Kong sent 20 swimmers to three legs of the Swimming World Cup, and four under-20s have hit qualifying times for the world championships
Siobhan Haughey said Hong Kong was “catching up with the big swim nations”, with more of the city’s young swimmers qualifying for major international events.
Hong Kong sent 20 swimmers to compete across three legs of the Swimming World Cup, and in Singapore last week, four athletes under 20 hit qualifying times for the world championships in December.
Haughey, who is Hong Kong’s most decorated athlete with four Olympic medals and four world championship golds, said there were “multiple reasons” for the improvement over recent years.
“The level of swimming in Hong Kong is definitely improving because, in the past, it was really hard to qualify for the A cut at the Olympics or world championships, and you see more people doing that, or more people getting closer to that,” Haughey said.
“And I think there are multiple reasons for that: the government is putting more money into sports, and we have really great coaches. And I think we’re catching up with the big swim nations.”
Haughey said the Hong Kong team travelled with a nutritionist, a physiotherapist and a performance scientist, who used video footage to analyse their races and techniques, and this had also improved performance.
