Olympics 2024: meet the Hong Kong women’s fencer being urged to emulate city’s Tokyo gold medallist Cheung Ka-long
- Teenage foilist Daphne Chan hailed as ‘inspiration for all Hong Kong female fencers’ after sealing her place at Paris Games
- Coach’s advice to Chan is ‘exactly what I said to Cheung Ka-long five years ago, and see what happened’
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Teenage fencer Daphne Chan Nok-sze is being urged to maintain her positive attitude and aim to emulate Cheung Ka-long, after she sealed a spot at the Paris Olympics.
Hong Kong’s foil head coach Gregory Koenig sees Chan’s progress in recent months as inspiration for the city’s women athletes, and wants her to push on after she clinched qualification for Paris last month.
She had already shot to prominence when she reached the semi-finals at last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou to earn an unexpected bronze medal.
“It is clear Hong Kong fencers are talented,” Frenchman Koenig said. “We have some men’s foilists who already showed absolutely everything.
“Now we show to every woman that they also can succeed in Hong Kong. It’s an inspiration for all Hong Kong female fencers to understand that if they work hard, they can do it. It gives a positive mind to every woman, so this is something great.”
Chan was level on points with Sena Hong of South Korea as they arrived at last month’s Grand Prix in Washington both chasing the second of two Asia and Oceania individual spots for Paris.
The Hongkonger swept through the pool stage and reached the round of 16, while her Korean rival fell at the first hurdle.
Those results meant that the 19-year-old Chan became her city’s third women’s foilist to reach an Olympics. Chang Ying-man did so in Athens in 2004, and Lin Po-heung competed in back-to-back Games, the 2012 and 2016 editions in London and Rio de Janeiro.
“Her dedication to hard work [is her strength] and she’s really open-minded,” Koenig said. “She understands and listens to all that the coach tells her.
“I just want her to stick to the same self-confidence, because it’s never always positive. Sometimes she will be disappointed in some results, but you can either be negative and complain, or keep a positive mind and think about the future.
“Always stay positive; this way you can jump ahead again for the best results. This is exactly what I said to Cheung Ka-long five years ago, and see what happened.”
Cheung, of course, went on to win an Olympic gold medal in the men’s individual foil in Tokyo in 2021, becoming only the second Hongkonger in any sport to top a podium at any Games.
Come July 28, Chan will be standing on the piste at the Grand Palais in Paris, awaiting the biggest bout of her career.
“She’s in a period of her life where she starts to understand fencing and starts to understand herself,” Koenig said.
“She knows her good points, and she knows where she is a bit weaker. She really focused on these strong points, and this is why she performed very well in the Asian Games.
“And when you perform very well in this kind of competition, you take a lot of self-confidence.”
Ranked No 29 in the world, Chan will be one of the city’s three fencers heading to the Games in France this summer, alongside reigning foil champion Cheung and world No 1 women’s epeeist Vivian Kong Man-wai.
