Hong Kong eager for more sporting success

City aims to improve on six medals won by delegation to Tokyo 2020 Olympics

After years of hard work, 14-year-old Uhi Viviena Marise finally became a member of the Hong Kong swimming team, but this achievement was far from easy.

With a father from New Zealand and a mother from Hong Kong, she started swimming lessons when she was 3, but her parents never expected her to progress so well.

They merely wanted her to become stronger and a proficient swimmer, a skill that could be useful in the future. However, their daughter has a passion for swimming and is now just one step away from the top level of the sports pyramid in Hong Kong.

"Swimming has always been my love, rather than studying," the teenager said, adding that her parents had no problem with her priorities.

She used to train from 5:30 am to 7 am and then went to school until 4:30 pm. After class she returned to the pool for another two-and-a-half hours' training, before rushing off to do her homework, which she had to complete quickly in order to make an early start the next day.

However, since starting middle school, she has gradually realized the importance of studying and has tried to catch up with her academic work due to the upcoming Junior Secondary Education Assessment and the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination－h(huán)er entry ticket to college.

Uhi was thrilled when she learned she had won a place on the city's swimming team, but knew this was just the start of the next stage of the journey to becoming a professional athlete.

Her idol is newly crowned Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Haughey, with whom she has much in common, as Haughey, who is half Irish and half Chinese, was also born in Hong Kong.