Bearing the Torch Together:

An interview with Boccia Paralympian Hiu Lam YEUNG

March 2, 2022 [updated April 1, 2022]

Last summer, CAIS had the honor to be selected by Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled (HKSAPD) [formerly known as Hong Kong Paralympic Committee & Sports Association for the Physically Disabled] to be one of the venues for its Boccia* Regional Training Programme (eight days in July and August 2021), with the Kowloon West team training in our Primary Play Area. In fact, we were privileged to be visited by the elite Boccia athlete and Paralympian, Ms. Hiu Lam Yeung 楊曉林, who came to give a short demonstration to encourage the Kowloon West team before she flew to Tokyo for the 2020 Paralympic Games!

The Regional Training Programme culminated with the 2021 Boccia Regional Cup being held in our gymnasium in November 2021, when teams from six regions around Hong Kong gathered to compete in an exciting day of strategy and accuracy.

Just as the Hong Kong government granted CAIS a piece of land, we have in turn made our facilities available to external organizations as a part of “giving back” to the local community. It is our honor to continue to play our part in nurturing Hong Kong athletes.

*Did you know…Boccia is one of only two sports in the Paralympic Games that does not have an Olympic counterpart. It is like bowls – a target ball sport which tests both muscle control and accuracy. It is specifically designed for motorically impaired wheelchair athletes with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. It also has a therapeutic effect on the athletes and serves as a rehabilitation intervention. It can even be played sociable by anyone, even able-bodied players as long as they stick to the rules of remaining seated. Please click 👉🏽 here for more information about Boccia.

📷: CAIS

We want to support and promote Team Hong Kong (with stellar performances from them in both the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics). We especially want to promote Boccia within our school community and give an insight to the experience of a top athlete.

We are pleased that Ms. Yeung was able to take some time from her busy schedule of training and international competitions, to speak with us (via video conferencing on January 17, 2022) about her experience, the challenges, the training required to become a top Boccia athlete, and how people can get involved/support this sport.

📷: CAIS

Last summer, CAIS had the honor to be selected by Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled (HKSAPD) to be one of the venues for its Boccia* Regional Training Programme (eight days in July and August 2021), with the Kowloon West team training in our Primary Play Area. In fact, we were privileged to be visited by the elite Boccia athlete and Paralympian, Ms. Hiu Lam Yeung 楊曉林, who came to give a short demonstration to encourage the Kowloon West team before she flew to Tokyo for the 2020 Paralympic Games!

The Regional Training Programme culminated with the 2021 Boccia Regional Cup being held in our gymnasium in November 2021, when teams from six regions around Hong Kong gathered to compete in an exciting day of strategy and accuracy.

Just as the Hong Kong government granted CAIS a piece of land, we have in turn made our facilities available to external organizations as a part of “giving back” to the local community. It is our honor to continue to play our part in nurturing Hong Kong athletes.

We want to support and promote Team Hong Kong (with stellar performances from them in both the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics). We especially want to promote Boccia within our school community and give an insight to the experience of a top athlete.

We are pleased that Ms. Yeung was able to take some time from her busy schedule of training and international competitions, to speak with us (via video conferencing on January 17, 2022) about her experience, the challenges, the training required to become a top Boccia athlete, and how people can get involved/support this sport.

*Did you know…Boccia is one of only two sports in the Paralympic Games that does not have an Olympic counterpart. It is like bowls – a target ball sport which tests both muscle control and accuracy. It is specifically designed for motorically impaired wheelchair athletes with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. It also has a therapeutic effect on the athletes and serves as a rehabilitation intervention. It can even be played sociable by anyone, even able-bodied players as long as they stick to the rules of remaining seated. Please click 👉🏽 here for more information about Boccia.

📷: Hiu Lam Yeung

INTERVIEW after general introductions between CAIS Advancement Team and Ms. Hiu Lam YEUNG and HKSAPD Rep.

Please tell us about yourself and how you got into Boccia?

I got into Boccia in Junior High. I went to interest classes and entered some competitions to try out the sport and ended up showing potential. My interest and sense of accomplishment in competing grew, and I wanted to develop this further. My parents didn’t know much about this sport but just thought it would be a good way for me to condition my physical frame and do some sporting activity.

There are different classifications within this sport. [As it is a Paralympic sport] Boccia athletes can’t be too physically capable/mobile. I have an eligible impairment for Boccia and entered the ranks of the Hong Kong Boccia squad.

Has Boccia affected your daily life?

Definitely. It started with me taking part in a few interest classes, then grew to me seriously focusing on training while I was still in Junior high. Those junior high days were packed with a school-and-training routine: school in the daytime, training after school, doing my homework after training, looping the same schedule every day.

Describe your training schedule. How often do you need to train? What is your routine?

As a full-time athlete now, I train 5 days a week, usually 9:30 to 6pm with 1 hour lunch break, sometimes only half a day. Two days off to rest. Not really long hours of training. [CAIS says that’s training for a whole working day!]

During my free times I’ll use one day to just sleep in late because I really like sleeping and training is sometimes tough! The other day I usually gather with friends and family, though I might train during weekends too. Family and friends are only free during the weekends, so it’s hard to find time to spend with them when they are free, but I try to do so as much as possible. I also get a break during public holidays.

What challenges have you faced personally and as a Boccia athlete?

Whether I face challenges in my training or in my daily life, it is about my attitude and mentality. In training, I have to keep training day in day out to a high-performance standard, repeating the same exercises. The challenge is to make the repetitive training enjoyable and more effective. In competitions, I have to find a way to get back on track when faced with losses or feeling like I’ve lost my touch. This mental resolve is the same for other life situations as well.

PROFILE:
Athlete’s name: Yeung, Hiu Lam 楊曉林
Boccia Class: BC2

World Ranking (as of in March 2022):
• 1st in Individual BC2 Female
• 11th in BC1/BC2 Team
Reference: https://worldboccia.io/rankings

Recent achievements:
• Ranked 5th at Boccia Mixed BC2 Individual event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games (東京2020殘疾人奧運會) (Aug-Sep 2021)
• Two bronze medals at the Fazza Dubai 2021 World Boccia Asia-Oceania Regional Championships (硬地滾球亞洲及大洋洲錦標賽) (Nov 2021)
• Nominated for “Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards for Women” in the Cathay 2021 Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards

In which recent competition were you most satisfied?

In last year’s competition in Dubai, I competed in individual and team events [winning bronze in both]. Our success in the team event was significant as it was a new team coming together and we managed to place above Japan. You have to know that a number of top Boccia teams are from Asian countries, and Hong Kong hadn’t bettered the Japan Team for a long time, so we did our best together to secure success for the Hong Kong Team.

For team events, you need to first learn how to work together with your teammates – you need to talk together to understand each other’s issues. How long this process takes really depends on each person’s characteristics, but it was fast for us because we have known each other during past individual trainings sessions.

📷: HKSAPD
📷: CAIS

You have visited our campus before and seen one of our areas opened for external use. What did you think of our school as a venue?

Thank you to CAIS for making your school available to us and for your support, the venue was very good for Boccia and the supporting facilities were very suitable for Para athletes, for example accessible toilets for wheelchair users, which is very convenient. Many multi-purpose venues in Hong Kong do not have specific facilities for Boccia.

In the past when we didn’t have a dedicated training area for Boccia and had to go to Boundary Street Sports Centre for our weekly training, which wasn’t ideal as we often faced booking issues and couldn’t train as planned. The competition for these spaces is very keen, so if people are interested to try Boccia, they will face certain restrictions.

We understand the difficulty for Hong Kong people to book public venues to do sports. CAIS will be opening an Amenities Building with more space and facilities for sports and performing arts, which again will be made available to external organization outside of school hours. What if more schools could also make their spaces available?

Your school is very well equipped. Of course, it would be great if other schools could do what CAIS is doing with their venues, hiring it out for Boccia and other such sports to the public.

Fortunately, after our [Hong Kong Boccia athletes] success in competitions, we now have our own training venue for full-time and part-time athletes at the Hong Kong Sports Institute – since 2015. We’re very thankful for this. However, there are still a lot of outside people, such as budding athletes and the public, who experience difficulty in finding venues to learn and practice this sport. It would really show the spirit of sports participation in the community if other schools could provide more venues.

📷: HKSAPD
📷: HKSAPD

Apart from facilities, what can Hong Kong people do to support Boccia/Para athletes?

For Boccia, I personally think we need more manpower. We [Hong Kong Boccia squad] currently have a stable venue but are lacking volunteers/helpers. Our physical state is more impaired than other Para athletes, such as table tennis and wheelchair fencing ones, who can take care of themselves [independently at competitions]. We need one-to-one assistance as some of our teammates have muscular atrophy and movement disorders such as Cerebral Palsy, like me. We need people to help us take care of ourselves and help us move. We do not have a lot of full-time coaches, and half of our volunteers/part time coaches are retired persons. The other half have normal day jobs.

The biggest problem now is going to competitions during the pandemic. It now takes a long time when we head out for competitions. For example, for Dubai it took us at least a whole month. We go to the competition for at least 2 weeks and when we come back everyone had to be under quarantine for at least 2-3 weeks. Those who are still working might find it hard to take leave for such a long time and might even have to take no-paid leave to accompany us on competitions. This volunteer situation seems to be the biggest problem for us.

VOLUNTEERING INFORMATION
PROVIDED
BY HKSAPD

“Our association will always welcome volunteers. Please contact Friends of Para Sports. This association is for volunteers that help different sporting activities and will also recruit and teach Boccia volunteers. For training, as long as you [volunteers] can make time, the coach and different staff will definitely help and train you to be a volunteer.

Boccia volunteers should have enough physical strength, as one of the main tasks is to take care of the athletes. If you just want more basic duties, it is also possible. The simplest job is to assist athletes when they are training; to pick up the boccia balls as the athletes cannot do so. There are many areas that we need volunteer help in, please join friends of HKSAPD. When you join, you can also take part in other Para Sports under our association.

AGE LIMIT
There’s no age limit as there is a such a wide range of volunteer jobs available to do, but if volunteers are too young, we would need a parent to agree and would be great if a parent accompanied their child when volunteering.”

Can you tell us what your plans are for 2022/23 and if there are any competitions we can look forward to?

For short term goals, I am preparing for the competitions that will be held in October and December and also to prepare for the Asian Games in Hangzhou and the World Championships in Brazil, which is the most competitive for this year. If we gain top 3 position at the World Championships, it will mean a direct entry to Paris 2024 Paralympics. I hope to do well in these competitions.

We hope to see you in Paris 2024.

I hope so too. I will start gaining points for entry to Paris 2024 from the next few competitions.

Upcoming International Boccia Competitions

October 2022 – Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games
December 2022 – Rio de Janeiro 2022 World Boccia Championships

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

That concludes our interview. Thank you for your time. We’ve enjoyed chatting with you, Hiu Lam. You’re a ray of sunshine with your cheerfulness. When the Hong Kong people see you compete, they will be cheered up by your upbeat outlook and professional competitiveness.

Thank you so much.

We hope you will visit and use our facility again.

HKSAPD Rep: Yes, we are still planning the Regional Training Programme. We have to be careful due to the pandemic, but we’ll see what opportunities there are for further partnership with CAIS as your facilities are really good – we’ve had a good experience arranging activities at your school and appreciate your support. Thank you.


CAIS is a school that aims to serve and share its facilities with the wider community outside of school hours. During school hours, we are a dynamic place of learning, as an international through-train school, with three pathways to graduation. Outside school hours, certain allocated space, have been used by various organizations, such as a local church, and as training facility for other groups like Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled (HKSAPD). We look forward to establishing more relationships with other organizations to support sports, art and community developments in the future, especially with the opening of the Amenities Building, which will offer even more facilities for our students, school community and the wider community.

If you are interested in hiring our facilities for group activities or meetings, feel free to contact the school at info@caisbv.edu.hk.