Taking Flight with Tiffany Yue, Hong Kong’s Top Long Jump Record-breaker

Hong Kong’s top long jump record holder and ranking just shy of Top 10 overall in the entire continent of Asia, Onside's Women With Muscles Community Ambassador Tiffany Yue Nga Yan is a homegrown athletics star who has stunned with a myriad of prestigious awards. Smashing through Hong Kong records with flying colours and velocity, she has won championships in the name of the city at competitions held both locally and internationally around the region, competing in Taiwan and Singapore over the past few years.

In conversation with The Beat Asia, Tiffany reflects on her journey in reaching her milestones around the track and offers some words of encouragement for other female athletes.

For readers who don’t know, could you tell us about your background and how you first came to pursue athletics?

It’s actually a really funny story. I won the 60-metre race during school sports day when I was 5 and got invited to the school team. I was also invited to the school choir team back then and our school only allowed kids to join one school extracurricular activity [at a time], so it was Athletics versus Choir.

I chose athletics at last because some older schoolmates told me that the choir team had practice during Christmas holiday and I was not giving up on holidays! This was how I started becoming a sprinter.

Were there ever moments that made you want to leave professional athletics? How did you overcome that?

Yes. I wanted to quit athletics when I was about to finish secondary school because I had no improvements in 100-metres [sprint], 100-metre hurdles and long jumping for two whole years.

I wanted to continue again because I’ve had a huge accidental improvement in [my] long jump nearly hitting the HK Junior Record back then on my last school sports day, right before DSE. That made me believe I hadn’t yet reached my full potential. That was also how I decided to specialize in long jump instead of sprints.

What is a lesson you’ve learnt in your Long Jump training that has influenced your thinking/life?

Failing the first attempt does not make you a failure. You figure out what’s wrong, find the solution, and try again. It may not be perfect, but you go and try again.

However, there may not always be unlimited chances available, so you just got to try your best and take it as it is sometimes. [In those situations,] what you can do is keep your head up and try to make it even better when you have the chance again.

What have been the biggest changes in the HK sports scene affecting female athletes that you’ve seen since you began your journey?

I feel like more and more female athletes are attaining huge achievements in the field and more girls are regularly participating in sports. No matter if it’s for leisure, fitness, or professionally. Female athletes are also given more [time in the] spotlight than before!

What changes do you hope to see in the field, that you feel could better support female athletes?

I hope that with more spotlights given to (female) athletes, people would start to see and appreciate the beauty of a healthy body and broaden the beauty standard [applying to] body shapes.

As the male and female body works on very different hormonal systems, I also hope there would be more research in sports science based on female [anatomy] that can help female athletes achieve their full potential with [the] manipulation of menstrual cycles without doping.

Lastly, what’s in store for the future of Tiffany?

Keep growing, keep pushing through my limits and reaching my full potential – and hope to see you in the Olympics!

Keep up with Tiffany on Instagram at @tiffanyyue

Follow Onside Sports Group for a pulse on more up-and-coming sports happenings at @get_onside