MAKING HER POINT

Foil fencer Daphne Chan is happy to see the rising interest in her sport since Cheung Ka-long's historic win, and is headed to the Games with impressive wins behind her. But she's not allowing the pressure to get to her, and is most excited about who she might meet in Paris

- Zabrina Lo

It could have been ordained by her name, which means “laurel tree” in Greek, that foil fencer Daphne Chan Nok-sze would one day compete in the Olympics; wreaths made of the tree’s leaves would be given to the victors of the sporting events of ancient Greece. The 19-year-old part-time Hong Kong team athlete, who splits her time between studying and fencing, is a rising star on the piste. Before her qualification for this year’s Games, she claimed Hong Kong’s first girls’ gold medal at the Women’s Foil Junior World Cup in Thailand last year; the Hong Kong team also won silver at the event.

“Winning gold was an unexpected but very important milestone for me,” Chan says. “I didn’t expect to win, because there were a lot of good fencers at the international event; I went and thought I’d just have some fun, enjoy the games and see how far I could go.”

Chan believes this attitude has been the key to her success so far: “I entered the competition in a relaxed mood and I didn’t think about the results too much. If you win every match, where’s the fun? There are no challenges. Sometimes, I tell myself that I need to lose a little to know what I have to improve on. Only if you’ve lost will you truly feel happy when you win.” She’s taking this approach to the Paris Olympics: instead of obsessing over medals, she’s most looking forward to making new friends from around the world in the Olympic Village.