Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey reveals how she balances life in and out of the pool
The star athlete has learned the importance of prioritising her mental health and personal time amid the demands of her athletic career
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Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey balances success with wellness by slowing down
One of Hong Kong’s most celebrated athletes, Siobhan Haughey, thought she had a rather balanced life. That is, until the swimmer was given a month-long leave after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where she won bronze in both the 100-metre and 200-metre freestyle events.
Those victories brought the total number of Olympic medals under her belt to four, adding to her two silvers from the same events at the Tokyo Games. This makes Haughey the city’s most decorated swimmer at just 26 years old.
“I took a month off after the Paris Olympics, and I think it was my first real long break in seven years,” she recalls. “It was very weird in the first two weeks; I didn’t really know what to do with all this free time. So I was still working out Monday to Friday, finding different exercises to do.”
Eventually, Haughey took a trip with her friends, but she still felt an urge to load up her days with activities. “That was a pretty interesting experience for me. Now I know that I need to work more on this and learn to just sit still. It’s OK that you don’t fill your schedule with 100 things to do,” she says.
“It’s hard to find that balance at first. You really need to go through trial and error to see what works for you, and how much downtime you need in order to feel rested to do things again.”
But Haughey – who is also Hong Kong’s first world record-holding swimmer, having claimed the title in the 200-metre freestyle at the 2021 World Short Course Championships – has always treasured her family and close friends as much as her illustrious athletic career.
