Profile | Siobhan Haughey’s rise to become golden girl of Hong Kong sport

If someone were to tell Siobhan Haughey the sky was the limit, she would try to find a way to swim through it. Throughout her career, the 27-year-old has advanced wave upon wave, and in November, will compete in her first National Games, looking to medal in the 100 metres and 200m freestyle events. Should Haughey triumph at the National Games, it would mean that she has medalled at the biggest events on offer, winning four Olympic medals, five world championship titles, two Asian Games golds and a world record for good measure. So, how did Haughey get to the very top? Born to an Irish father and a Hong Kong mother on October 31, 1997, Haughey started swimming aged four but did not instantly take to the water. In fact, she would resist when her parents dragged her to lessons at the South China Athletic Association (SCAA) in Causeway Bay. “I didn’t enjoy it at all,” she said. “I thought it was very boring, just swimming up and down the pool, and I would cry every time I went.” But she soon overcame that, and by the time she was seven, she was training five times a week at the SCAA after a coach spotted her international-level potential. “I think after a while, I saw those swimming lessons as a chance to see my friends rather than to learn how to swim. And so at that age, when you have friends with you, everything seems more enjoyable.” Fast forward to 2013, and Haughey, 16, was picking up medals at a rate of knots. At the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships, she set a competition record and won gold in the 100m freestyle alongside bronze in the 50m. At the East Asian Games, Haughey picked up five bronze and two silver medals. One year and a total of 14 medals from international competitions later, Haughey had qualified for Rio 2016, becoming the first Hong Kong swimmer to break the Olympic qualifying A standard. The medals slowed down for Haughey – mainly because she had left her hometown to pursue a degree in psychology from the University of Michigan. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won her heat in the 200m freestyle, but finished sixth in the semi-finals and 13th overall. Five years later, when she won two silvers in Tokyo, she actually contemplated retirement. “Honestly, after Tokyo, I thought I was done with swimming. I thought of retiring,” she exclusively told the Post. “I was worried that Tokyo was my peak, and I couldn’t improve or I couldn’t go any faster. “It just felt very normal that I should be done after Tokyo. I’d been swimming for so long and [thought] maybe after that, I’ll go back to school or find a job somewhere.” Haughey continued swimming, mainly because she began training with coach Tom Rushton in 2021, which brought a lifestyle change that made her realise swimming was not something she could move on from. “We approach training differently, where instead of just training in Hong Kong, we travel around the world to different places, see the world, go to different swim meets,” she said. Haughey won short-course world titles in 2021 and 2022 in a 25m pool, and set a world record time of 1 minute, 50.31 seconds in the 200m event, but the long-course world crown, in a 50m Olympic-sized pool, eluded her. In October 2023, Haughey became the most decorated Hong Kong athlete in any one edition of the Asian Games, winning two golds, one silver and three bronzes. A week later and riding high on those exploits, Haughey swam the 100m free in 52.02 seconds at the Swimming World Cup leg in Berlin, the fastest time of the year and third fastest of all time. The wait to become a long-course world champion ended in Doha in February 2024, when she won gold in the 200m. “Finally, I get to not only be on the podium, but on top of it,” she said. Heading into the 2024 Paris Olympics, Haughey was not only the third-fastest woman ever in the 100m but the seventh in the 200m. “I trained really hard in Tokyo, but before the Paris Olympics, I’m swimming more, I’m doing more, I’m putting more work in at the pool and outside of the pool,” she told the Post. “I’m doing extra stuff to help with my recovery, my diet, extra training and extra everything because I want to make sure that if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. “Once you meet a certain elite level, it’s even harder to keep improving and to keep getting better. “I just want to make sure I find that one per cent in everything that I do so that I can find different ways to improve. I think if you want to be one of the best, you have to do things that no one else has done.” Haughey took home two bronze medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle events in Paris. In the 100m, she finished in 52.33, a staggering 0.01 seconds faster than Australian Mollie O’Callaghan in fourth. First was world record holder Sarah Sjostrom, who originally said she would not compete in the event, but ended up swimming in 52.16 seconds. American Torrie Huske was second in 52.29. Two days before, Haughey had again come within tenths of a second of winning gold. She was leading the women’s 200m freestyle for the first 150m, but eventually finished third in 1:54.55. The Olympic cycle is known to put a tremendous physical and mental burden on athletes and while competing at the Swimming World Cup in October, she revealed she would take a three-month break from the sport, following the short-course world championships two months later. “I’m going to take three to four months off just to do different things, let my body recover and see if I still miss swimming or not,” Haughey said. “I think the major factor in deciding if I go to LA or not is more if my body can handle another four years of rigorous training. I’m not getting any younger, so it’s just going to get harder from here.” Haughey won her fifth world title at the short course competition in Budapest in December, and true to her word, did not return until April 2025. But that return was short-lived as she missed the long-course championships in Singapore in July and August with a back injury. The Hongkonger had frequently said she wanted to compete at the National Games and, after recovering from her injury, returned to full-time training. However, she has yet to state outright her plans for 2026 and beyond. Regardless of whether Haughey sticks around for the Asian Games next year or sets her sights on another shot at gold at the Olympics in 2028, for everything she has done for swimming and sports in Hong Kong, she will always remain one of a kind.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Four-time Olympic medallist, five world championship titles, two Asian Games golds and a world record – will she shine at National Games?

Four-time Olympic medallist, five world championship titles, two Asian Games golds and a world record – will she shine at National Games?