Kong's triumph shows her resilience: chief surgeon
A chief surgeon who performed two knee operations on Hong Kong fencing champion Vivian Kong says her Olympic success demonstrates her resilience and determination. Patrick Yung, who chairs the department of orthopaedics and traumatology at Chinese University, said he was moved to see Kong claim a gold medal in Paris at the weekend. “It's moving and touching. Indeed, I witnessed Vivian over the past seven to eight years overcoming all those big and small injuries," he told RTHK in an interview in the French capital. “After all these years, [going] through all the injuries, all the different setbacks, she champions in the biggest stages in the sports world.” Kong’s journey to Olympic gold has been filled with ups and downs, after she suffered serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in 2017 and 2019. Yung recalled seeing in the newspaper Kong’s return to action just three months after her surgery in 2017. “She didn't tell me, so I called her up and said ‘How come you get back so soon?’ and then she just said 'hehe' and 'Well, I'm okay,' but since then I understand that this girl is very disciplined. She recovers very fast.” Yung, a long-time honorary medical doctor for the Hong Kong Sports Institute, said Kong’s recovery was exceptionally fast thanks to her unwavering discipline. “I have operated on thousands of ACLs, but she's probably the one who got the fastest recovery." In June, Kong withdrew from the Asian Fencing Championships because of another knee injury. But she recovered in less than a month to defeat Auriane Mallo-Breton in dramatic fashion in Paris. “In about a month's time, most people would be okay to walk around with that injury. But if we are talking about competing in the highest level of the sports arena, it's very much demanding. Again she performs another magic,” Yung said. Kong lost in the quarter-finals in Tokyo three years ago. The top épéeist is the third Hong Kong gold medallist in history, following windsurfer Lee Lai-shan and fellow fencer Edgar Cheung.