Major Achievements
Lee Lai-Shan, popularly known as "San San", was born in Cheung Chau and started windsurfing aged 12. She began to take part in windsurfing competitions at the age of 17 and joined the Hong Kong team at 19. Over the years, Lee won many international competitions, including the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Hong Kong, in the women's mistral boardsailing class, at the 1996 Olympics and the first champion in the Asian Games representing Hong Kong, China.
Between 1952-1995, Hong Kong had never been able to win any medals at the Olympic Games. Lee Lai-Shan's victory at the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympics changed all this and added a glorious chapter to the region's 44-year Olympic history. Notably, the 1996 Summer Olympics was the last international sporting event that Hong Kong participated in as a British colony, making Lee's medal the first and last medal that the Hong Kong team (not Hong Kong, China) won. It was at that time Lee famously declared to the media:
| “ | Hong Kong athletes are not rubbish! | ” |
After the Games she became a student of sports management at Australia's University of Canberra in 1996. She was the first Hong Kong athlete to receive an Honorary Doctorate in social sciences from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Lee became a recipient of the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award” and the Bronze Bauhinia Star Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the international sports scene. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Social Sciences by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. There is a monument resembling a windsurf board and mast erected in her honour near the beachfront at Cheung Chau.
In 2008, she was the first person to carry the Olympic torch in the torch relay leg in Hong Kong. She also was the final torchbearer in 2008 Summer Olympics sailing opening ceremony at Qingdao International Marina.
Major achievements
- 1990 Beijing Asian Games - 2nd
- 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games - 11th
- 1993 World Championships - 1st
- 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games - 2nd
- 1995 World Championships - 3rd
- 1996 World Championships - 2nd
- 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games - 1st
- 1997 World Championships - 1st
- 1998 Bangkok Asian Games - 1st
- 2000 Sydney Olympic Games - 6th Mistral
- 2001 World Championships - 1st
- 2001 National Games - 1st Mistral
- 2002 Busan Asian Games - 1st
- 2004 Athens Olympic Games - 4th Mistral
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