Fed up with the false expectations placed on her as a little girl, Yvette Kong Man-yi “cut my hair short and looked like a little boy”.
“I came from that era where they forced me to take ballet classes,” said 2016 Olympic swimmer Kong. “I didn’t like wearing skirts and dresses… I really liked football, and a big fan of Michael Owen.
“During the 2002 World Cup, I was wearing a shirt with his name on the back and mixed with a group of boys playing on a small football pitch. If they had known I was a girl, I’m not sure they would have let me play. I was curling like Beckham: I loved that movie.”
A natural instinct to defy traditional constraints may define Kong’s work – in the pool and beyond.
He praises figure skating “inspiration” Eileen Gu for showing “there is no reason to expose young Asian women”. A biopic of Kong himself would deliver the same powerful message.
“I think it’s time to flip the script a little bit,” he said.
