‘I’m not perfect,’ says Hong Kong’s Vivian Kong as she tearfully recalls Olympic stress as world’s No 1
Olympic gold medal fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai choked up on Wednesday as she recalled the pressure she faced at the Paris Games as “the No 1 in the world”, while dismissing suggestions she is the “perfect Hong Kong girl”.
The 30-year-old épéeist cried while recalling the stress she came under during the Games, and said she was also learning how to be a “grown up and working adult” with her new job as an assistant external affairs manager at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Asked by a student how she handled the pressure and motivated herself, Kong choked up and said: “I was playing as the No 1 in the world, so I could not lose. I should not lose.”
Kong said that because she was the top seed in Paris, the Games were her most stressful moment in the past two years.
She was speaking during a visit to Hangzhou Chenjinglun Sports School, part of a five-day study tour for Hong Kong students organised by the Jockey Club under the government’s “Strive and Rise” mentoring programme.
Kong, who was sharing her fencing journey with a group of 80 students, struggled to maintain her composure when answering questions from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese media and became emotional several times throughout the session.
Asked about the reason for her tears, Kong joked that her mother had chided her before for crying in front of cameras.
“She’s going to scold me again,” she said, tearing up.
Kong also attributed her Olympic win to being “really lucky that day”.
“Sometimes I forget that I’ve won gold and I still feel apologetic for losing, until I remind myself that I won,” she said.
“Every day I keep reminding myself that I could’ve lost and how that would be different.”
Asked about recent controversy surrounding an academic analysis of local politics she wrote, Kong did not answer directly but instead shrugged off the question.
Government critics accused her of being pro-Beijing in her academic paper, prompting Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung to defend her while calling the attackers “brainless”.
In her 2021 master’s thesis, first leaked online by a pro-protest website, she wrote that Beijing’s “patriots-only” overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system following the 2019 anti-government demonstrations had put the city back on the right track.
Kong on Wednesday also hit out at the media for misquoting her, after her comment that local athletes were “blessed” stirred debate about the hardships of sportspeople in the city.
“That comment was made in context of what I said before and after, but [the media] only picked out the sentence in the middle,” she said.
Kong said she felt blessed being able to do what she loved and go so far in fencing despite the lack of resources thanks to the sacrifice of the athletes before her.
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Hong Kong’s ‘fencing queen’ Vivian Kong returns home after winning Olympic gold
Hong Kong’s ‘fencing queen’ Vivian Kong returns home after winning Olympic gold
Some athletes have said they have to work part-time jobs to support their sporting careers. Currently, entry level full-time athletes can get around HK$7,000 a month in sponsorship from the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and more if they secure tournament wins.
Kong, a Stanford University and Renmin University graduate, announced her decision to end her full-time fencing career shortly after her Paris victory, and soon took up a new role at the Jockey Club, which sponsors the mentoring programme.
She dismissed claims she was the “perfect girl”, adding that she had her flaws.
“I’m not perfect at all. Everyone is too kind, I have many imperfections and many things to improve on and I hope to live up to the perfect image in your minds,” she said.
“With these newly placed high expectations on me, I will work harder to improve myself to live up to them.”
Kong said she had no difficulty adapting to her new workplace but was sorry she failed to maintain her composure.
She said her new position with the Jockey Club was her first working experience as she had only ever been a student and full-time athlete.
“I will need to work on my speech skills as I am now still incoherent,” she said.
“I have to learn how to be a grown up and working adult.”
A slew of meetings await Kong when she heads back to the Jockey Club office on Friday to discuss projects going forward.
“I look forward to using my sporting spirit to overcome any challenges at work,” she said.
Together with Kong, the 80 students will return to Hong Kong on Thursday afternoon.
The study tour itinerary includes visits to West Lake in Hangzhou, local innovation and technology companies, tertiary education institutions and museums, as well as cultural events.
The programme is designed to help lift underprivileged Hong Kong pupils out of poverty through eight targeted aspects such as fostering financial planning skills, self-confidence and a sense of belonging.
