The crest of a wave
She competed in the 2012 Olympics in London, won gold at the 2014 Asian Games and now HKU Arts student and champion windsurfer Ms Hayley Chan has her sights set the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Hayley enrolled at HKU in 2010 to do a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the same time she was training to compete in the windsurfing for her first Asian Games in Guangzhou, where she would notch up a very respectable silver medal. Since then she’s gone on to take 12th place at the London Olympics in 2012 and a gold medal at last year’s Asian Games in South Korea in the women’s RS:X event.
It is perhaps ironic that windsurfing career really started to take off the year she enrolled at HKU. Juggling the long hours of training needed to be a top athlete with the amount of studying needed to be a top student proved a very difficult challenge. “I’m not taking any courses right now,” said Hayley. “I did one semester in 2010, but since then I’ve been fully committed to windsurfing. I would have loved to do a little bit of studying at the same time, but with the amount of overseas training and racing needed to be at the top level, I cannot see how I can fulfil both.”
The most important thing I have learnt is you need to set priorities, then make the decisions and believe in them.
Ms Hayley Chan
Last year she spent just three months in Hong Kong, and at the time of this interview she was doing a training camp in Rio de Janeiro alongside two other leading female windsurfers. “We have been training together since last year,” said Hayley. “2012 London Olympic Gold medallist windsurfer Ms Marina Alabau from Spain, World Cup Silver medallist windsurfer Ms Lilian de Geus from the Netherlands and me, along with their own personal coaches, and an expert coach Mr Bruce Kendall, who is also an Olympic Gold medallist.
“It is important to be in Rio to see what the wind and waters of the 2016 Olympic venue will be. We were in Miami last month, so it was easy to travel to fly on to Brazil for a training camp after that.”
Hayley finished third place in the RS:X Rio de Janeiro Cup this February.
As far as Hayley is concerned the high-point of her sporting career so far, was in 2012 Olympics. “That is by far the most incredible experience I have had. The possibility that I might get the chance to be in the Olympics was what drove me to suspend my studies after 2010. I had never thought it would be possible – when I won the trials I could not believe it.”
She explained that while the actual racing event was just the same as any other regatta, “the difference was on land. All teams had a lot more support than normal, everybody was more serious, striving to do the correct preparation and routines every day. Everything around the competition was much more grand and exciting!
“It was amazing standing in the centre of the stadium during the opening ceremony alongside so many athletes from so many other nations. It was overwhelming inside the Olympic Village as well, seeing the extremes of different body builds across athletes from all kinds of sports. You could always guess the giants were the basketball or volleyball players, while the petite pretty figures must be the gymnasts or synchronised swimmers.”
Hayley (right) and her training group in the Miami World Cup.
Serious setback
Her career has not all been plain-sailing. Prior to those Olympics, she had a serious accident when she collided with a 49er Olympic sailing class boat while training in Dorset. The collision could have been fatal, as it was it left her in the Intensive Care Unit with five broken ribs and she had to have her spleen removed. But in the spirit of what doesn’t kill you make you stronger, Hayley said: “I felt if I could survive having one third of my blood inside my abdomen cavity then I ought to be able to do everything for my life’s dream. Having been at death’s door for the first time, I didn’t want any regrets when the next time came.”
She made a fast recovery and went on to finish 12th at her first Olympics. Asked where she’d like to finish at the next Olympics, she is modest: “I hope first to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics… and then we’ll see.”
Asked what advice she would give other students who want to combine academic study with sporting prowess, she said: “There are many choices and decisions to make when you want to be at the top of your game. Even though I am not studying now, I still believe it will be possible to combine both in the future, with more flexibility and planning ahead from all sides. The most important thing I have learnt is you need to set priorities, then make the decisions and believe in them.
“I am doing a Bachelor of Arts degree but I haven’t chosen my major yet. It would probably be English Studies since I love language and literature. I hope to be back in university after the 2016 Rio Olympics, so I should finish it by 2020. I’ll be 29 by then, pretty old for an undergraduate!”
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Hayley (right) and her sports psychologist Ms Angela Hau, who is also an HKU alumna.
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