24th September 2026 – (Nagoya) Siobhan Haughey declared that the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will be her last after claiming silver in the women’s 50 metres freestyle, saying her body has been sending warning signals even as she leaves Japan with two golds and two silvers.
The Hong Kong star has now finished all her individual events at these Games. She will not swim the heats of tomorrow’s women’s 4×100 metres medley relay; whether she contests the final will be decided by her coaches. After the 50 metres free she spoke frankly about injury and illness that have shadowed the meet.
“Overall the racing feeling has not been good,” she said, explaining she fell ill just before the Asian Games and competed while still sick. Nonetheless, she was “very satisfied” to finish only 0.02 seconds outside her personal best in the sprint. A month before serious training she suffered a thigh-muscle injury that stopped her kicking, weight-lifting and lower-body work until shortly before departure — then illness struck again once the trip began.
She called this the hardest Asian Games of her career and a lesson in imperfect preparation. She normally demands perfection before a major meet; this time reality would not allow it, and she already knew she could not break her best times. Her answer, she said, was still to “Do the best you can”.
Injury and sickness would have given her every excuse to scratch, but the Asian Games matter and she wanted a proper ending to her final edition. Doctors and physiotherapists kept finding ways to get her on the blocks — “a whole-team effort”. Looking four years ahead felt too distant: the fire remains, yet her body keeps asking whether she can last another cycle. “Can I really swim another four years?” she asked, adding she had long known this would be her last Asian Games. Within her limits she had given 100 per cent of what she had on the day, even if it was not her full strength.
Haughey’s Nagoya haul stands at gold in the women’s 200 metres freestyle, gold in the 100 metres freestyle, silver in the 50 metres freestyle and silver in the women’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay with Gilaine Ma, Li Sum-yiu, Kan Cheuk-tung and Wong Yan-tung. Ian Ho took silver in the men’s 50 metres freestyle and Kan claimed bronze in the women’s 100 metres butterfly — a swimming table that still has Haughey at its centre as she prepares to close her Asian Games chapter.