Hong Kong teen swim star Siobhan Haughey aiming to go one better than Olympic Games and make final at world championships

The 19-year-old had another impressive season on the gruelling US college circuit for University of Michigan

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Siobhan Haughey starred for Hong Kong at the Olympics. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00am, 21 Jul 2017Updated: 7:05pm, 22 Jul 2017

Hong Kong swim star Siobhan Haughey is targeting a place in the finals as she takes part in the World Aquatics Championships this week.

The teenager made history at Rio 2016 as she became the first Hong Kong swimmer ever to reach an Olympic semi-final, and after another impressive season in the elite US college circuit with the University of Michigan, the 19-year-old is hoping to go one better at the worlds, as the swimming programme starts on Sunday in Budapest.

“The Olympics definitely gave me a lot of confidence because I know how fast I can go,” she said. “However, I was a bit burnt out from last year as I didn’t really have a break after college season and after the Olympics.

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“On top of that, after an excellent freshman year and summer, I had very high expectations on myself for the new season. So it was a bit hard for me to adjust at the beginning.

“However, I eventually realised that I can’t linger on what happened last season. College swimming is more about the team rather than myself.

“The team culture and my teammates’ support really helped me move on from Rio. Since then I’ve been putting in the hard work, and had some really good practices and I’m very excited about the worlds.”