Hannah Wilson

Hannah was born and raised in Hong Kong and represented the region for the first time at the age of 9 at an International Age Group competition in Taiwan. This was the beginning of an amateur, turned  professional, swimming career. Hannah went on to represent Hong Kong in three Olympic Games - Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. 

In 2004, Hannah was studying at Island School and successfully navigated studying and swimming by producing a personal best result in the home of the Olympic Games. However, this came as no easy feat. In March 2004 when Hannah qualified for the Olympic Games it came to light that she was ineligible to represent Hong Kong due to not holding a HKSAR passport. The Olympic rule states that one must have the passport of the country that they represent. Whilst being only 15 years of age, Hannah was unable to legally renounce her British citizenship to meet the HKSAR passport requirement. This was the beginning of a saga lasting a few months between the IOC and the HK SF&OC. With the Olympic Games soon approaching, Hannah was finally given the green light from the IOC to represent Hong Kong with her British passport.

In 2006, Hannah was a member of the 4X100m Freestyle relay which won a bronze medal in the Asian Games, her first major medal. In 2007, she went on to study and swim at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a new training environment and team that revitalised the sport for her; getting her through another Asian Games, an East Asian Games at home, a Summer Universiade and a further two  more Olympic Games. As well as being active in the International swimming scene, Hannah was a member of the UC Berkeley Women's Swimming Team which won the NCAA Championships in both 2009 and 2011.

2009 was a highlight for Hannah. Firstly, she finally got the Hong Kong passport that she had applied for when she turned 18 and she also went on to break 2 Games records and win 2 gold medals in the 100m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly at the 25th Summer Universiade held in Belgrade, Serbia. However, when there are highs, there are also lows. 2010 - 2011 were tough years for her. Struggling to get close to PB's and low motivation caused her to question why she kept going. Although she had set her sights on London 2012, she was unsure of whether this was a realistic target or not. She persevered, did manage to achieve her goal and is proud of overcoming the hard times; a lifelong lesson and skill. Even though
she did not perform as well as she did in 2009, she looks back on her swimming career with pride and will still say that each Olympics were very different, unique and incredible, but London was the most fun;  despite a disappointing performance. 

Hannah went on to coach swimming after retiring from competitive swimming and then qualified as a teacher. She now teaches physical education at a secondary school in Hong Kong with the hopes of inspiring future generations.