Nicholas Edward Choi () is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ma ...

fencer.

Career

Choi took up fencing in 2002 while he was in primary school. He thought the sport was cool because of the lights going off at each hit. His younger sister, Natasha Erica, followed his example. When she was selected into the

Hong Kong Sports Institute The Hong Kong Sports Institute () is a sports institute located in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is mandated to provide training to athletes, and also offers academic qualification in the field of sports training. The institute sponsors ...

junior fencing team, his pride was piqued and he resolved to train harder until he was selected in his turn. In 2010 he was the second-placed Asian at the Cadet World Championships in Baiku, qualifying to the

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics ( ta, 2010 கோடைக்கால இளையோர் ஒலிம்பிக் விளையாட்டுக்கள் ms, Sukan Olimpik Belia Musim Panas 2010), officially known as the I Summer ...

. He was defeated in the table of 16 by Denmark's

Alexander Tsoronis Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

and finished 9th. He was then drafted into the Hong Kong's senior fencing team and began to study at the Institute of Vocational Education, Chai Wan. At the 2011 Asian Championships he reached the quarter-finals after seeing off Olympic silver medallist

Yuki Ota is a Japanese foil fencer, gold medallist at the 2006 Asian Games, silver medallist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, team silver medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and individual gold medallist at the 2015 World Fencing Championships. He is ...

. At the age of 19, Choi qualified to the 2012 Summer Olympics as the second-ranked Asian, becoming the youngest fencer to represent

Hong Kong at the Olympics Hong Kong first competed at the Olympic Games in 1952, then as a British colony ( British Hong Kong). Hong Kong has participated at every Summer Olympic Games (14 summer, 4 winter) since then except for the boycotted 1980 Games, and has also par ...

. Despite losing in the first round to Romania's

Radu Dărăban Radu Dărăban (born 26 June 1983) is a Romanian fencer. In the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed in the Men's foil, but was defeated in the second round. Career Dărăban began fencing at age 9 at his local club, CSM Cluj, where he was trai ...

, he received a “Hong Kong Potential Sports Star Award” for his achievement. In 2018, Choi won two silver medals in the men's foil individual and

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

event at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until th ...

in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is the best ever result of Hong Kong fencers. He retired shortly after the competition, but announced his return in April 2021, targeting for Paris Olympics.

Personal life

Choi is a mixed-race child of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

and

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

descent (father is Chinese-Korean mixed, mother is Filipino). His father is the leader of the Hong Kong fencing team; his elder sister serves as the head of English at a Direct Subsidy Scheme secondary school on Lantau Island; and his younger twin sister

Natasha Choi Natasha (russian: Наташа) is a name of Slavic origin. The Slavic name is the diminutive form of Natalia. Notable people * Natasha, the subject of ''Natasha's Story'', a 1994 nonfiction book * Natasha Aguilar (1970–2016), Costa Rican sw ...

was also a fencing player. Choi studied at

Lam Tai Fai College Lam or LAM may refer to: Organizations * Laguna Art Museum, California, US * Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer * Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company * LAM Mozambique Airlines, flag carrier airline of Mozambique * Librarie ...

and took the

Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination The Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE, 香港中學會考) was a standardised examination between 1974 and 2011 after most local students' five-year secondary education, conducted by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment ...

(HKCEE) in 2010. He was a candidate for the last cohort of the HKCEE. He is a friend of

Jackson Wang Jackson Wang (; ko, 왕잭슨; born 28 March 1994) is a Hong Kong rapper, singer, dancer, record producer, fashion designer, and music video director. He is the founder of record label Team Wang and is the creative director and lead designer ...

, a former member of the Hong Kong Fencing Team and the Korean group Got7.

References

External links

Profile
at the Hong Kong Fencing Federation {{DEFAULTSORT:Choi, Nicholas Edward 1993 births Living people Hong Kong male foil fencers Hong Kong people of Korean descent Hong Kong people of Filipino descent Fencers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Olympic fencers of Hong Kong Fencers at the 2014 Asian Games Fencers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for Hong Kong Asian Games bronze medalists for Hong Kong Asian Games medalists in fencing Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games 21st-century Hong Kong people