Cover Ho Yuen-kei wears a Ports 1961 outfit (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
Ho Yuen-kei wears a Ports 1961 outfit (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
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Boccia player Ho Yuen-kei won two golds at this year’s Paralympics. But she has her sights set on far more just medals
Just hours after Hong Kong claimed its first gold medal at the Paris Paralympics in early September this year when John Loung triumphed in the Boccia men’s individual BC1 event, the city celebrated a second win when fellow boccia player Ho Yuen-kei clinched gold at the women’s individual BC3 event. This was followed by another gold medal won by her and her boccia partner King Tse Tak-wah at the BC3 mixed pairs event two days later.
“It’s a dream come true to win on such a global stage,” she says.
This dream was hard won, though, especially given that the idea of being an athlete, let alone a world-renowned champion, was once just a fantasy. Ho was born with type 2 spinal muscular atrophy; symptoms include weaker than average lung function and hypotonia, or low muscle tone, which worsens with age. As a child, she spent a lot of time in hospital, including in intensive care. “One time, my doctor told me that a lung infection could cost me my life,” says Ho, who uses a wheelchair. “I used to be very worried about my condition.” It can hardly be a surprise that sports were not part of her daily life.
Above Ho Yuen-kei wears a Ports 1961 outfit (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
Ho Yuen-kei wears a Ports 1961 outfit (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
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What’s more, sport wasn’t something her parents imagined could earn a living. “They believed I would only have a future if I studied well. It’s also a commonly held impression that the only careers wheelchair users go for involve offices or paperwork.
She tried boccia when she was studying at Hong Kong Red Cross John F Kennedy Centre, a school for children with physical disabilities, and preparing her university application. “The physical education section was quite empty; that didn’t look good,” she says. The school offered a variety of sports, such as ping pong and badminton, but “Boccia was the only sport I could take part in, as I couldn’t control my arms to play a racket sport. In time, it grew on me.”
Above Ho Yuen-kei wears an Umber Postpast dress from Lane Crawford (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
Ho Yuen-kei wears an Umber Postpast dress from Lane Crawford (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
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She started taking classes and was recruited into the Hong Kong team in 2008. The following year, encouraged by her coach, she participated in the Asian Youth Para Games in Tokyo—and came first. “I was surprised, and felt that perhaps I had the potential for success,” she says.
Playing boccia also taught her to be resilient: as her muscle tone decreases, she needs additional support to play—her assistant, who is also her husband, Jet Lee, faces away from the court, and positions the ramp according her instructions. “I thought of giving up and focusing on my studies,” she says, “but this sport taught me to persist in what I love. It’s only then that you can see how far you can go.”
In 2018, after graduating with a degree in Chinese studies, sociology and marketing, Ho was offered a job with an international marketing firm. “I thought hard about taking the offer. Sports didn’t seem like a sustainable career,” she says. But she dug deep into the resilience that her sport had instilled in her. “At the same time, I’d always wanted to earn a place at the Paralympics. I was young and I thought I could give it a try—I wanted to lead a life that I wouldn’t regret.” With that, and the full support of her family, she went full-time as a boccia player.
Above From left: Jet Li wears a Fendi jacket and shoes and Ho Yuen-kei wears a Sandro shirt and skirt and her own shoes (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
From left: Jet Li wears a Fendi jacket and shoes and Ho Yuen-kei wears a Sandro shirt and skirt and her own shoes (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Issac Lam)
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Paris was proof that she made the right choice. “Sometimes, [those of us with disabilities] question whether society accepts us; many of us wheelchair users stay at home because we assume that it’s inconvenient for us to go anywhere,” she says. “I want to show disabled people to be brave.”
She leads by example: as well as preparing for the National Games for Persons with Disabilities in December next year at the new Kai Tak Sports Park, she has set up a website and YouTube channel locating wheelchair user-friendly restaurants to encourage others to get out more, and is in the process of establishing an NGO that fosters social inclusion by organising events for people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and the elderly.
“I want to encourage [people with disabilities] to take that first step to pursue their aspirations. It doesn’t have to be sports—it can be anything that they love.”
Need to know: What is boccia?
Boccia was first introduced at the Paralympics in 1984 and has no Olympic equivalent. It is a precision ball sport, where players throw, kick or use a ramp to propel a ball onto the court, with the goal of getting closest to a “jack” ball. It is similar to bocce and designed for athletes with a disability affecting locomotor function.
Credits
Creative Direction Zoe Yau
Photography Issac Lam
Fashion Direction Cherry Mui
Photography Issac Lam
Creative Direction Zoe Yau
Hair Kit Li
Make-Up Jovy Chai
Set Design Ip Siu
Photographer’s Assistant Hsiao, Jason Li and Riki Chan
Stylist’s Assistant Alix Lefebvre
Set Design (assistant) Naomi Chiu
Topics
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
