Camille Cheng

Camille Cheng is a professional swimmer, two-time Olympian – Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021 – and an Asian Games medallist with a total of six bronzes and one silver, which she won in 2014, 2018 and 2023. Born in Hong Kong, Cheng is the eldest of three daughters to French and Chinese parents, and was raised between this city and Beijing. She developed her love for the swimming pool as a child and began training competitively at the age of nine. Cheng studied psychology at Berkeley, and holds an MPhil in industrial organisation psychology and a graduate certificate in sports and performance psychology. In 2023, along with swimmers Stephanie Au and Jamie Yeung, Cheng co-founded Mind the Waves, a platform enabling them to share their experiences and struggles with physical and mental health in the most candid way possible, destigmatising a very real need among young people to talk about mental wellbeing. “We want to contribute to a happier and healthier Hong Kong,” she says, “and help advocate for and support local athletes on and off the court, or in and out of the pool.” She’s currently in training for next year’s Olympics in Paris.