Home Letters

At our last High Table Dinner of this semester, we proposed the title “Breaking the Wind, Chasing the Dreams” to our guest speaker, Ms Sarah Lee (Olympic Medalist), inviting her to share how she overcame challenges (i.e., “breaking the wind”) as she pursued her dreams. That evening, she shared her phenomenal story of how she persevered through injuries, failures (e.g., being ranked last in competitions during her early years), and intense training, and how she was eventually crowned with the “rainbow jersey”. Towards the end, she mentioned that there is another meaning of “breaking the wind”. Although she did not have time to explain it, it intrigued me to check it out afterwards.

“Breaking the wind” also refers to a cycling technique in which the front rider serves to reduce the force of the wind resistance borne by the second cyclist, thus allowing the second cyclist to conserve energy, enabling the second cyclist to eventually overtake and win at the end. The front rider “sacrifices” for the eventual “success” of the second rider. This reminds me to show appreciation to my family and friends who have made various sacrifices for me as I pursued my dreams in my career.

Salute also goes to our College member Professor Patrick Yung (S.H. Ho Professor of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine) for not only being the interviewer of Ms Lee that evening, but also being an unsung hero to “break the wind” for many top athletes in Hong Kong by volunteering his medical services over the decades and enabling them to win eventually.