Vivian Kong Man-wai was born in Hong Kong on 8 February 1994 and is a Hong Kong epee fencer nicknamed the 'Smiling Sword Queen' for the smile she often wore in competition. Standing 1.78 metres and fencing left-handed, she learned ballet, figure skating, taekwondo and piano as a child before settling on fencing at her mother's prompting. She won the national U17 championship aged thirteen, took individual epee gold at the Asian Cadet Championships at fourteen and was named a Hong Kong Outstanding Junior Athlete; in 2012 she entered Stanford University to study international relations, took a year off to prepare for the Rio Olympics and later earned a master's degree in law from Renmin University of China. At the 2016 Rio Olympics she made her Games debut, going out in the round of 16 but recording Hong Kong's first-ever Olympic fencing victory; at the World Championships in 2017 she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, returning to the training hall four days after surgery, and suffered a similar serious injury to her right knee, coming back each time. In 2018 she won the individual epee title at the Asian Fencing Championships and took both individual and team bronze at the Jakarta Asian Games, and in January 2019 she became the first Hong Kong fencer to reach world No. 1 in women's epee; that July she won bronze at the World Championships, Hong Kong's first medal there. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics she reached the quarter-finals and afterwards apologised to the public three times. On 8 May 2023 she regained the world No. 1 ranking, and at the 2024 Paris Olympics she trailed 1-7 in the individual epee final before beating France's Auriane Mallo-Breton 13-12 to win Hong Kong's third Olympic gold and its first in fencing; she received the Medal of Honour and announced her retirement that August. She later joined the Hong Kong Jockey Club as an assistant external affairs manager, received the Silver Bauhinia Star in 2025, and in December 2025 was elected to the eighth Legislative Council for the tourism functional constituency with 131 votes, becoming the youngest member of the term.
Kong's Olympic gold was Hong Kong's first in fencing, and her comeback from 1-7 down in the final became a byword for a Hong Kong athlete's resilience under pressure; she turned women's epee from a niche pursuit into a sport that young people rushed to take up, and extended her public influence by entering the Legislative Council after retiring.
Achievements
- 2018 · Won individual epee gold at the Asian Fencing Championships, and took individual and team epee bronze at the Jakarta Asian Games.
- 2019 · In January became the first Hong Kong fencer to top the women's epee world rankings; in July took bronze at the World Championships.
- 2024 · Won Hong Kong's first Olympic fencing gold in the individual epee final at the Paris Olympics, coming back from 1-7 down to win 13-12.