Lee Lai Shan

Lee Lai Shan (, born 5 September 1970 in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong) is a former world champion and Olympic gold medal-winning professional windsurfer from Hong Kong. She was the first athlete to win an Olympic medal representing British Hong Kong.

Sports career

Lee Lai Shan, popularly known as "San San", was born in Cheung Chau and started windsurfing aged 12. She began to take part in windsurfing competitions at the age of 17 and joined the Hong Kong team at 19. Over the years, Lee won many international competitions, including the first-ever Olympic gold medal for British Hong Kong, in the women's mistral boardsailing class, at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the first champion in the Asian Games representing Hong Kong when it was a British territory.

Hong Kong had never been able to win any medals for as long as it had participated in the Olympic games since 1952 until Lee Lai Shan's victory at Atlanta 1996. Notably, the 1996 Summer Olympics was the last international sporting event that Hong Kong participated in as a British Dependent Territory, making Lee's medal the only medal that the British Hong Kong team won as in 1997 , the handover of Hong Kong happened. It was at that time Lee famously declared to the media: "Hong Kong athletes are not rubbish!"

After the Games she became a student of sports management at Australia's University of Canberra in 1996. She was the first Hong Kong athlete to be awarded an honorary Doctorate in social sciences by The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In 2008, she was the first person to carry the Olympic torch in the torch relay leg in Hong Kong. She was also the final torchbearer in the 2008 Summer Olympics sailing opening ceremony at Qingdao International Marina.

Participation record 1990 Beijing Asian Games – 2nd 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games – 11th 1993 World Championships – 1st 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games – 2nd 1995 World Championships – 3rd 1996 World Championships – 2nd 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games – 1st 1997 World Championships – 1st 1998 Bangkok Asian Games – 1st 2000 Sydney Olympic Games – 6th Mistral 2001 World Championships – 1st 2001 National Games – 1st Mistral 2002 Busan Asian Games – 1st 2004 Athens Olympic Games – 4th Mistral

Honors 1994 – Named Best Athlete of Asia 1995 –1996 & 1999–2000 – Named one of Hong Kong Sports Stars of the Year for four times 1995 – Selected Best Athlete in Hong Kong for 1994 1998 – Voted one of Hong Kong Top Ten Athletes for 1988–1998 by Hong Kong Sports Press Association 1999 – Selected one of China's Top Ten Athletes for 1998 1999 – Awarded Special Prize in the "Best Athletes of the Century" selection jointly organised by the Chinese Olympic Committee, Henry Fok Foundation and China Sports Press Association

Personal information Lee married longtime partner Wong Tak-Sum (黃德森) (known in English as Sam Wong), who has also represented Hong Kong internationally in windsurfing, and gave birth to a daughter, Haylie Wong (黃希皚), in August 2005, and to a second daughter, Kallie Wong (黃嘉怡), in August 2007. This was one of the reasons she took a break from competition, though she has not ruled out competing altogether. In 2008, she was involved in the Summer Olympics again when she was one of the presenting team for ATV, in addition to commentating in the sailing event.

In 2006, Lee was featured in a Hang Seng Bank advertisement, in which she said the cost of raising a child in Hong Kong will be HK$4 million (US$510,000). It has caused a slight controversy in Hong Kong as most people do not think it will actually cost that much, and most think that Hang Seng Bank exaggerated the figures.