"Little Mermaid" Siobhan Haughey has turned down Ireland’s request to represent the country several times, saying she belongs to Hong Kong - where she was born and raised.
Haughey won a silver medal for Hong Kong in the women's 200m freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics this morning.
Branded as the city’s brightest medal hope before the Tokyo games, Haughey had said she felt proud to represent Hong Kong as she shared a strong connection with the place.
That made her repeatedly turn down Ireland's requests to recruit her as an athlete.
Apart from being the first local athlete to win an Olympic medal in swimming - beating the likes of swimming heavyweights such as the US’s Katie Ledecky and Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, she has smashed 63 local and 13 Asian records so far.
Haughey was born on October 31, 1997 to Irish father Darach - the nephew of former three-time Ireland prime minister Charles Haughey, and Hong Kong-Chinese mother Canjo - an associate director at the Monetary Authority’s Risk Management and Compliance Department.
She also has an older sister, Aisling, 25, who is a competitive swimmer as well.
At six months old, her parents - both enthusiastic swimmers, taught Haughey to swim in her home’s swimming pool.
And they enrolled the then four-year-old in a swimming class along with her sister at the South China Athletic Association.
But Haughey recalled herself not enjoying the experience at first.
“I was not interested in swimming when I was younger and had thought about dropping out of it due to its harsh training,” she said.
“But my coaches told my parents that I was gifted in swimming and therefore I should not give it up…After achieving significant results, my interest in the sport then started to grow.”
The sport, which started as an additional hobby to her piano lessons, soon morphed into a potential streamline after her coaches’ recognition of her talent in swimming.
“It was already pretty obvious that she was a pretty special swimmer,” Haughey’s former coach Michael Fasching recounted meeting her aged 12.
Since studying at St Paul’s secondary school, Haughey was already pulsing through both the local and international swimming scene.
In 2013, she won gold in women’s 100m freestyle at the world junior championships in Dubai.
In the same year, Haughey won two silvers and five bronzes across several freestyle disciplines at the East Asian Games in Tianjin, boosting morale for the senior team.
Next year, she took two silvers in women’s 200m freestyle and individual medley and 100m freestyle at the Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and three bronzes at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
In 2015, the freshman at the University of Michigan was fast-tracked to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In the following year, after qualifying for the 200m freestyle and individual medley, Haughey became the first swimmer from Hong Kong to reach an Olympic semi-final, completing 13th overall.
In June 2017, she decided to drop out of the 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games due to ankle injuries.
In July the same year, Haughey earned a fifth-place in 200m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Hungary.
And in August, she won two golds in women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke in the Summer Universiade in Taiwan, though her sister who also joined the match failed to cruise into both’s finals.
She also made waves at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships during her college years.
Haughey notably completed second and third in its 200-yard freestyles in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Her college-level times also landed her a spot at the International Swimming League, where she finished her debut season as team DC Trident’s highest-scoring swimmer.
In addition, Haughey has earned a series of honors, with four “Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards” among them. She was also branded as the “Asian Female Swimmer of the Year” twice by SwimSwam media.
Apart from swimming, the all-rounder has achieved outstanding academic results as well.
In 2015, she attained the best result of 35 in seven Diploma of Secondary Education Examination subjects, including 5** in liberal studies; 5* in English; 5 in accounting and Maths; 4 in Chinese, Chemistry and English literature.
In the same year, Haughey enrolled as a psychology major at the University of Michigan, and graduated from the university in 2019.
In retrospect, she said juggling swimming practice and studies was a meticulous task, as she had to practice six days a week in her final years of secondary school.
“I had to wake up at 3 am to revise, then head for swimming practice at 5 am before going to school,” she said.
She has also achieved grade eight in piano - the highest level.
The star athlete said she hoped to become a child psychologist following her retirement.
