When Kong was a child, her parents enrolled her in several interest classes. She learned to draw, play the traditional Chinese instrument, the guzheng, and went for ballet lessons. She found ballet particularly challenging and didn’t enjoy it because her movements were too stiff. She preferred Taekwondo for the speed and agility of combat.

But Kong’s mother wanted her to pursue a more “elegant” sport, so she tried other sports including figure skating. It was fencing, however, that finally captured the then-11-year-old Kong’s heart.

Her dad took her to a fencing club one day and during that visit, she walked past a rack of swords and picked up an épée, the largest and heaviest weapon used in the sport. This marked the beginning of her years-long training as a fencer, progressing from learning it as a hobby to competing professionally.

“I like épée because you can hit any part of your opponent’s body. The moves are similar to those in Taekwondo. It has the speediness of Taekwondo and the elegance of ballet,” Kong said in an interview with the Chinese magazine Ming Pao Weekly.

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Kong won the Under-17 National Championships in China when she was 13 years old, after two years of practice. Her first coach, Chen Weijing, told the media that she was an exceptional student at the time due to her unique qualities: long arms, being left-handed, and having quick reflexes and adaptability.

When Kong was at a university in the US, she participated in and won the NCAA Fencing Championships, a national tournament for collegiate individuals and teams. She earned more titles, securing bronze medals at the Incheon 2014 Asian Games and the World Fencing Championships 2019.

With an impressive track record, Kong was invited by Canada—where her family had moved to when she was two—to represent the country in the Olympics. She later rejected the offer. “I’m a Hong Konger. I want to represent Hong Kong in fencing,” she explained in an interview.

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Kong used to eliminate all meats from her diet except seafood. Then, she switched to a completely vegetarian diet after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee in 2017. She started incorporating ingredients such as seaweed, black fungus and peach gum into her meals, believing they would aid her recovery based on her own research online.

On Instagram, she would post videos of vegetarian dishes. One of the recipes she shared was her mother’s favourite, “The Three Earthly Bounties”, which uses potatoes, eggplants and green peppers as the main ingredients.

In a post-race interview following her historic victory at Paris 2024, Kong said that strawberries were the first food she craved.

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As the world’s top fencer, Kong aimed for gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. But she suffered a setback, tearing the ACL in her right knee before the Games. She placed fifth in the women’s épée event and was part of the women’s épée team, which finished seventh.

“I will not cry after losing; I will only do so after winning,” she said after the match, apologising to her team and supporters for her unsatisfactory performance.

Her road to recovery was already tough, but the pandemic made it more challenging. In an interview, she mentioned that studying Buddhist philosophy and practising yoga, which she described as “a moving form of meditation”, helped her get through the journey.

“Buddhism teaches that life is suffering and because of that, we don’t have to try to avoid suffering. We need to learn how to accept and deal with suffering,” she said.

Her dedication and hard work finally paid off. In 2023, she reclaimed the world’s top women’s épée fencer title. She also won a gold medal at the Asian Fencing Championships that same year.

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Aside from excelling as a fencer, Kong has been recognised for her academic accomplishments. Despite her busy schedule balancing her schoolwork with athletic training during secondary school, she achieved an outstanding 41 out of 45 score in her International Baccalaureate Diploma exam.

Kong also graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in international relations. She has expressed her desire to work for the United Nations in the future.

She later earned a Master of Law from Renmin University of China and is pursuing a Juris Doctor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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