Soaring into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games 200m freestyle final, Siobhan Bernadette Haughey has become the mixed-race mermaid tasked with leading Hong Kong's next generation of elite-class swimmers. The 23-year-old Haughey, who became the first Hong Kong swimmer to make an Olympic final after clocking the second-fastest qualifying time, was already considered the city's strongest swimmer having smashed (and re-smashed) several local records and making history as the first Hong Kong women's swimmer to qualify for an Olympic semi-final. Touted by many as Hong Kong's brightest medal hope before the Tokyo Games - with former Hong Kong Olympian swimmer Alex Fong Lik-sun urging fans not to "give her so much pressure" - Haughey duly delivered. From being crowned junior world champion, to becoming an International Swimming League (ISL) hotshot, the Irish-Hongkonger's prospects get brighter with each meet - and has more than proven to be a perennial Olympic medal threat. Tricolour or Bauhinia? Haughey was born on October 31, 1997, to Irish father Darach and Hong Kong mother Canjo. She has one older sister, Aisling. Despite Haughey's various achievements and enthusiasm towards the media, her family largely stays away from the limelight. At the age of four, Haughey joined her sister for her first swim class at the South China Athletic Association . "I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought it was very boring ... and I would cry every time I went," she said. "But when I started beating the guys in practice, that's when I thought, 'I might be good at this'." View this post on Instagram What started as a supplemental hobby to her piano lessons soon turned into a potential streamline to the national junior circuit after club coaches recognised her natural talent. Former coach Michael Fasching described meeting her aged 12 - "it was already pretty obvious that she was a pretty special swimmer". Those hailing from Ireland would almost certainly recognise their surname. Her late grandfather, Charles Haughey , was a former Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, who led three times between 1979 and 1992. Ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Haughey revealed that she had been approached to represent Ireland but "chose to represent Hong Kong because I was born there, raised there, and feel connected and proud to represent Hong Kong". Haughey's ability to speak fluent English and Cantonese has allowed her seamless transition between North American and Asian swimming markets, particularly earning a soft spot with local fans, many of whom call her "Little Fish". Junior world champion The St Paul's primary and secondary school student was already dominating the local junior scene, but it was not until her teenage years that her name really started pulsing through the city. In 2013, the 16-year-old won gold at the world junior championships in the 100m freestyle. The same year, she won seven medals across several freestyle disciplines at the East Asian Games, setting up a much-needed boost for the senior team. A year later, Haughey won two Youth Olympic silvers. The following month, she helped the Hong Kong women's relay team to three bronze medals at the 2014 Asian Games. A freshly enrolled psychology major at the University of Michigan, Haughey was fast-tracked to the proceeding 2016 Rio Games. After qualifying for the 200m freestyle and individual medley, she made history as the first Hong Kong women's swimmer to reach an Olympic semi-final , finishing 13th overall. She broke her own national record in the heats. Haughey reasserted her 100m and 200m freestyle dominance with two gold medals at the 2017 World University Games. It capped a successful domestic season, which included a fifth-place 200m freestyle finish at the world championships in Hungary, which eventually earned her the first of two Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards . Haughey simultaneously made waves on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) stage, notably finishing fourth in the 200-yard freestyle. She finished second in the same event the following year, and third in her final year in 2019. She earned 14 All-American honours, 15 "Big Ten" championships (winning the 2016 edition's MVP award) in all. Serial record-breaker Haughey's college-level times earned her a move to the fledgling ISL, which boasts the likes of former Olympic champion and multiple world record-holder Sarah Sjostrom among other blockbuster names. She finished her debut season as team DC Trident's highest-scoring swimmer. Haughey broke several national records in 2019, including two of her own at the world championships and just milliseconds from the Asian 200m freestyle record. The performances earned her "Asian Female of the Year" at the Swammy Awards (prestigious annual event run by swimming news outlet SwimSwam). By her second season, Haughey earned a move to defending champions Energy Standard, setting two new Asian records and a 4x100m team relay "world record" . She earned joint-10th place in the overall MVP rankings - won by American Caeleb Dressel. She won her second consecutive Swammy. Haughey had already eased through the 100m and 200m Hong Kong Olympic trials in 2019 before sealing an additional 50m spot in May. View this post on Instagram Tokyo shift Slap-bang in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, Haughey returned to Michigan for intensive Olympic preparations. She and fellow Michigan swimmer Jamie Yeung Zhenmei trained until the pandemic forced the closure of swimming pools. Upon returning to Hong Kong, Michigan coach Rick Bishop sent the pair daily workout schedules to incorporate with national head coach Chen Jianhong's own routines. "That (Tokyo) is actually happening gave me something to look forward to and I'm just so thankful and feel so grateful .. (to) get to race the best in the world again. It's a great experience so far," Haughey said pre-Games. "If I can get a medal, of course that would be great. I know this is my second Olympics but I also don't want to give myself too much pressure because ... that's when I under perform." In May, Haughey helped steer the women's 4x100m relay team (comprising Yeung, Stephanie Au Hoi-shun and Karen Tam Hoi-lam) to a dramatic final spot in Tokyo. Yeung, who was in tears having qualified for her first Olympics , recalled the sacrifices they made before returning to the Hong Kong Sports Institute. "After we graduated, we were the only professional swimmers in Michigan training together. When Covid-19 hit, we stuck together, did home workouts, swam in the river, until we really had to go back to Hong Kong. We go way back but it's really these two years that strengthened our friendship. I've learned a lot from her and I'm super humble to be her teammate," Yeung said. "Siobhan is an inspiration and leader to a lot of us, so after seeing her being able to step up onto world-class podiums kind of inspired us to step up our training and build bigger." This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia. Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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