Ryan Leung, who is inspired by Olympics medallist Siobhán Haughey, braved strong currents and other adversities to cross one of the world’s toughest channels. Now he wants to motivate young people to turn life’s challenges into life’s training
Hong Kong swimming star Siobhán Haughey just picked up a bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle category at the Olympics, but that’s not the only swimming arena where the city’s athletes have been making a splash. Another of the city’s swimmers Ryan Leung braved cold waters, tough currents—and even venomous jellyfish—to become the only Hongkonger to cross the North Channel between northeastern Northern Ireland and Scotland on July 17, 2024. The marathon swimmer took 14 straight hours to cross the 35km channel.
Now, he is back in Hong Kong and has been named the ambassador of the Child Development Initiative Alliance (CDIA), a charitable organisation under the government that supports underprivileged youths, for which he raised a total of HK$500,000 from the challenge.
In case you missed it: Swimmer Ian Ho, who represents Hong Kong at the Paris Olympics, wants to make the city proud
Ryan Leung swimming across the North Channel (Photo: courtesy of Ryan Leung)
1 / 1
Leung is excited about the appointment. “I used to do education-related work before joining Wheellock Properties [where I work as a project manager],” he says. “I enjoy motivating young people. I used to [offer them advice on] colleges and high school applications.” He feels his vision is aligned with CDIA, which has been offering mentorship and internship opportunities that guide young people, especially those from low-income families, in their personal and career development.
“Some of them have never seen the world beyond their own neighbourhood,” he says. “I want to be an example to them and show them that whether they’ll succeed in something is all in their minds. It’s all about how we construct meanings around our experiences and situations. This is what I learnt from my journey.”
Leung shares some particularly taxing challenges that he faced on this journey. For example, when he was training in San Francisco Bay before the real challenge, he had hypothermia from the waters at 12 degrees Celsius. “I couldn’t even dip my head into the water because it was so painful, and when I got out of the water, I had all these bruises on my body, possibly because my blood [couldn’t circulate well].”
