More on CNT's reactions after CM 4-2 SYS.
For comparison, Edgar Cheung Ka Long of HKG becomes
the first fencer in 68 years and only the third in history to defend his Olympic foil gold. In the press conference upon his return, he puts the achievements of the fencing team in getting back-to-back Olympic gold
on the previous generations for planting the trees and they are the ones that reap the fruits, stressing that it is the result of a concerted effort that spans multiple generations.
For world ranked no. 1 Vivian Kong who took gold in épée, she wants to set up a fund with her
gold medal bonus to help children from grass-root families pick up sports. She failed the last two times, while being WR1 last time. When she first became WR1 in 2019 but crashed out in the Grand Prix immediately, she came back saying
she didn't deserve to be WR1 and got criticized by her
Romanian coach Tavi for "not knowing how to fence" and would do everything in her power to do her world ranking justice.
Both of them are missing only the World Championship title to complete the Grand Slam. Cheung Ka Long has already won everything in Asia while Vivian Kong is missing the Asian Games.
While we're at it, on why HKG has become a fencing powerhouse in a sport that is dominated by Europeans, a writer actually consulted her fencing friends and came back with a few pointers, the first of which is the following:
https://www.881903.com/soundcolumn/article/2542123/反芻人間/葉子兩塊奧運金牌-點解香港劍擊選手特別標青
1.
Fencing is a sport that emphasizes intelligence, psychology, and physical fitness, not just brawn. Due to the physique of Asians, some sports that emphasize pure strength and speed such as athletics, swimming, etc., Asians themselves have been more disadvantaged, in addition, Hong Kong's social culture does not encourage children to invest too much time into the same exercise, so the performance of Hong Kongers is limited in some sports that rely on repeated practice to improve performance.
Fencing is a very complex sport, in addition to requiring you to have physical fitness and technique, it emphasizes on thinking, control, strategy. Even if you practice a thousand lunges and practice a thousand strokes every day, at the end of the day it may not be enough to beat a person who uses the brain. Both to flexibly use the rules (just the right-to-attack takes a long time to work out), but also to be cunning enough to deceive the opponent, Hong Konger's characteristics are flexible enough and smart enough, and the whole education is focused on whole-person development that is adept in everything, which naturally fosters the ability to handle complex matters, manage themselves and their opponents.
https://youtu.be/FFjLS-6-yoc?t=30
https://youtu.be/daDNIBlEfi4?t=16
CM: My era has come.
Vivian Kong:
I don't even want to say "making history." I think the achievements this past year has been beyond my expectations. Just being in sports and being an athlete is a really selfish thing because you're always training for your own body and then you win and you're up there on the podium. It's because so many people have helped me along the way but then they don't get the spotlight. Me and my team, we made history together... After going to my first Olympics, I realized that people have a voice. People care about what you say and what you think and what you stand for. As an athlete, I've been thinking about what I really care about and what's the message I want to support.
