‘Big Sister’ Sherry Tsai is one of Hong Kong’s most outstanding swimmers. Following her retirement, she resolved to take up being a swimming instructor as a lifelong career, hoping to nurture even more swimmers that will surpass her. Her achievements as a swimming coach are remarkable: she was awarded the Hong Kong Swimming Coaches’ Association’s 2023 prize for Best Coach in her age group.
Tsai has achieved great success in swimming. She won a silver medal at the 1998 World Junior Games, competed in three Olympics, three Asian Games and four East Asian Games. She was also awarded ‘Hong Kong’s Best Athlete’ seven times and holds eighteen Hong Kong swimming records. The lead instructor at large-scale swimming schools for many years now, Tsai has nurtured elite swimmers and coaches, as well as led the Hong Kong team in competitions. Never looking back, she says, “I am still continuing my swimming career, but just taking on a new role.”
Tsai is incredibly passionate about her coaching work, thanks to something her own coach once said that changed her life. “I only started swimming at ten years old, but within one or two years, I had already improved quite a bit and joined the Hong Kong youth team,” she explains. “I discovered that I really liked the sport, and that I had some talent.” However, Tsai recalls being a little girl with no self-confidence in the past. “It wasn’t until after I began swimming and was praised by the coach for the first time—who said I swam well— that I realised there was something I could do better than others. This was an unforgettable moment for me. It was a simple saying, but I still remember it today.”
Tsai joined the Hong Kong team in 1995, and in her fourteen-year career as a full-time athlete, she has broken the city’s record time and time again. “I was never very satisfied because I broke records, as they simply represented another time I could surpass myself.” She describes swimming as a rather boring sport (“It’s just continuously moving in the water while looking at the tiles on the floor”), but during practice, she imagines that next to her are Asia’s top competitors, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean swimmers, pushing her to swim even faster. “I think I learnt many things from swimming which you can’t learn in school, including perseverance. There are many ups and downs in a swimming career; competitions don’t always go your way; and when you face defeat you have to remember your motivations. Every time you struggle or lose represents another chance to make yourself stronger. Because of swimming, I’ve become very resilient and won’t give up when I face a small obstacle.
Finding New Perspectives
Retirement is a crossroads every athlete faces, and Tsai is no exception, having retired at twenty-six. “At that time I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I gave myself a year to try anything and everything,” she says. “I was a host on the programme ‘Sports World’, I wrote in newspaper columns, I also interned with the Olympic Committee and helped organise the Outstanding Athlete Selection; only then did I learn how to use a fax machine.” This led her to realise that instead of starting from scratch and learning new skills, she could go back to doing what she was most used to and what she was most skilled at—swimming. Tsai says the challenge of being a swim instructor is greater than being a swimmer; you can’t just focus on yourself, but have to look more broadly. “You are not just looking at a single athlete, but a group. You also have to pay attention to how the world improves. Why do others improve and how can I help these athletes improve?” Although she has accumulated nearly thirty years of swimming experience from when she started, Tsai is still exploring and learning new things. “It’s not as simple as looking at the time on a stopwatch; there are many complex, ever-changing theories behind it.”
The Future Is Bright
So what is Sherry Tsai’s coaching style? She says strictness is a must, but often tells her students,“We are not a traditional, old-fashioned school, but an international, open-minded one.” She also places much emphasis on communication with her students, believing that both components should contribute to the development of training regimens. However, unlike her swimming days, where she “needed to force [herself] to achieve, and there was no room for failure”, she notes that in recent years, her attitude has changed for the better—her EQ has improved and she has learned how to relax. “When I see athletes swim badly, I won’t be too disappointed. Instead, I think about how I can help them do better next time. When I see them swim well, I won’t get too excited, but consider what they should do for the next competition. I don’t let my emotions get affected too much by a situation; I analyse it rationally, in order for myself not to get lost in my thoughts.”
On the topic of gender equality for athletes, Tsai believes that “being a female athlete in Hong Kong is a very fortunate thing.” She shares that it was only after her retirement and subsequent representation of Hong Kong at international exchanges that she understood that in some places, female athletes still face many barriers. These include competing behind closed doors, and swimming itself being regarded as a physically revealing sport. “I can’t imagine that even in this era, it would be so difficult for female athletes to participate in sports.” Because of this, Tsai is very grateful for having equal opportunities since she was a child – “and I’m also proud to be a female athlete.”
In Tsai’s opinion, Hong Kong’s newest generation of athletes are very fortunate. “There are many more resources now; not only are facilities better and more professional, there’s also more background support, such as sports research and studies in sports psychology,” she observes. “The entire sporting experience is better than before, so the new generation needs to treasure these resources, and learn and absorb as much as possible from them. When you have lots of things, you often take them for granted.” Tsai leaves a message for young swimmers saying, “Don’t forget your passion for swimming; use the resources we have now to make your swimming career more fruitful.”
Translated by Wing Hei Woo
Photography: Chau Yiu Yan
Makeup Artist: Cathy Zhang
Hair Stylist: Jaden Yeung
Fashion Assistant: Naoki Li
Location courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong
Editor
Bonnie Yau
