Profile | Ryan Choi: Hong Kong’s newest world champion almost quit after poor start to season
Coaches Maurizio Zomparelli, Giacomo Fanizza promised to dye their hair should the Hongkonger get results after being talked out of quitting
Hong Kong’s maiden fencing world title almost did not come to be. It would not have, had Ryan Choi Chun-yin stuck with his idea of skipping the rest of the season after some poor results up to early May.
On Wednesday, Choi went all the way in Tbilisi, Georgia, dominating Russian Kirill Borodachev in a 15-9 win to become Hong Kong’s first-ever fencing world champion.
Choi’s recent form resurgence began at the Shanghai Grand Prix in mid-May, after coach Maurizio Zomparelli talked the Hongkonger out of the idea of forgoing the rest of his season.
Born on October 9, 1997, a little more than three months after the handover of Hong Kong back to China’s sovereignty, Choi began fencing – on his mother’s suggestion – when he was a nine-year-old pupil at La Salle Primary School.
Choi recalled resisting the sport very much in the beginning, thinking it was “violent and dangerous” and felt like it was merely “fighting with weapons”.