Siobhan Haughey’s long course return is being put on hold after the two-time Olympic silver medalist from Hong Kong announced Friday that a minor ankle injury will keep her out of the Mare Nostrum Tour kicking off this weekend in Monaco.
“Unfortunately, I injured my ankle and will be sitting out the Mare Nostrum series (You know how they say swimmers can’t do anything on land … well it’s true),” the 24-year-old Haughey wrote on Instagram. “I’m lucky to have a great team around me to get me back into training and hopefully be ready for racing soon. It’s a minor injury and we have been seeing improvements, but we’re trying to be smart about making the right decision for the long term. I’ll still be cheering on my teammates and friends at Mare Nostrum.”
According to her coach, Tom Rushton, Haughey hurt her ankle by falling during a day off last Saturday. She could barely walk on Sunday, but Rushton said it’s been better each day since. Haughey was scheduled to swim the 50, 100 and 200 free events in Monaco.
If Haughey can recover quickly, she could be back in time for the FINA World Championships slated for June 18-25. With Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus absent from the 200 free in Budapest, Hungary, Haughey would likely be favored to win her first Long Course World Championships gold medal.
Hong Kong swim coach Chen Jianhong had told the South China Morning Post that the three-leg Mare Nostrum series was a time for Haughey to tune up ahead of the World Championships.
“It has been a long time since Haughey competed in long course, which is far from ideal for her to prepare for the World Championships,” Jianhong said before news of Haughey’s injury broke. “The Mare Nostrum tour has a long tradition and will be a good opportunity – she can use it as a warm-up for the worlds. We won’t set any target for the series, but of course Haughey is at a very high standard and can always produce good results.”
Last summer in Tokyo, Haughey became the first Hong Kong athlete in the country’s history to win two Olympic medals, taking home silver medals in both the 100 and 200 freestyle. The University of Michigan graduate then dominated the ISL as a member of Energy Standard, going undefeated in the 200 freestyle and breaking the Asian record in the 100 freestyle. After the ISL season concluded, Haughey wrapped up the short course season by winning a gold medal in the 200 freestyle at the 2021 Short Course World Championships, breaking Sarah Sjostrom’s World Record in the process. A podium finish at the Long Course World Championships has eluded Haughey, however, with her best result being fourth place in the 200 free in South Korea in 2019.
Sjostrom now figures to be the favorite in the 50 free, but the Swedish star didn’t enter in the 100 or 200 free in Monaco, where Haughey was the top seed in both events. After this weekend in Monaco, the Mare Nostrum Tour continues with two days in Barcelona before wrapping up in Canet-en-Roussillon in the south of France.
Anyone know what’s going on with the Mare Nostrum live stream? I thought prelims start right now but on the livestream it says 7 more hours until the event.
Probably they only broadcast the finals session?
I asked them on Instagram if I could watch prelims via livestream but they said only finals available via livestream this year 🙁
Is there live results anywhere?
Ouch ! With Titmus out, she’s been my pick for the 200FR and very much under consideration for 100.
Hope it’s nothing major.
Hope she can make it to Budapest where she’ll be in the mix for the gold in the 200 Free. I’ll miss her infectious smile until then.
She’s been one of my favourites for the last couple of years – I thought Freya Anderson was on a similar trajectory and would challenge her and Titmus, but looks like the injury has really slowed her momentum and it’s MOC who is the heir apparent and on a much steeper trajectory
:[
Still think Ledecky dropping the 200 was the right call, but the door just got cracked open a little wider for someone to sneak in there and take gold. Yang Junxuan, Penny, Tang Muhan, could all grab gold if they’re on form. Hard to know where any of the Chinese athletes are at in their preparation given the canceled nationals and exclusively running internal tests this year, but the amount they both dropped last year makes me think 1:53 could be on the table.
Yes, the times when it was possible to win World title with 1:55.15 are the ancient history already. Ledecky still has to be careful with 400 race since there are plenty of young swimmers who are ready to challenge her if she isn’t in good shape. But I have a feeling that the main focus this season is 800 event. It will be 10 years this summer since she “became very suddenly very famous”. I think she’d like to celebrate this anniversary with a good swim.
“..According to her coach, Tom …”
No, he’s not her coach. Her coach is Chen Jianhong. She left Hong Kong, because the government closed several pools due to the pandemic. That’s why she is abroad to train and compete consistently. (for a couple of weeks)
Before the pandemic, her coach was Rick Bishop.
Ken Jiong is a comedian and is on the stupid show with the celebrities singing in costumes.
They are all coaches for Siohban.
The reality is that a swimmer like Siobhan has many overlapping coaches. For much of the period Rick was ‘coaching’ her, she was in Hong Kong, and someone else was executing Rick’s workouts.
For now, she’s training with Tom Rushton, so he is, at a minimum, one of her coaches, and referring to him as “her coach” is definitely true. All of the other stuff is just noise and coaches warring over who gets credit for what. Absolutism might be valuable to the people who want to take credit, but the reality is that most elites will have multiple coaches in the course of a year in one form or fashion. It’s not an absolutist thing.
She is a Michigan product. Rick Bishop is the one who made her the swimmer she is now. We can’t give credit to someone that she did a 3 week camp with.
Should we say last December that Coley Stickels is Daiya Seto’s primary coach? No, because Daiya is a product of a japanese system.
Doing camps here and there doesn’t qualify someone to be a swimstar’s primary coach, because those coaches claim the title of “World champion coach” while they did nothing major with that swimmer. Many people can write workouts and know how to taper swimmers. It’s not rocket science.
All in all, shout out to Rick Bishop for helping her improve her level.
Silence pauper! Branden had spoken!
- Chen Jianhong is just the head coach of HKSI, hence he is like the spokesperson for HKSI’s athletes. He wasn’t even there for last Dec SC world champ (https://hkgswimming.org.hk/en/viewfile/?file=dXBsb2FkL3RlbXBsYXRlLzMyOTAvcGRmX2ZpbGVzXzEvNjE3NjUwMGIwNjlhNS5wZGY=) and isn’t going to there in Budapest (https://hkgswimming.org.hk/en/viewfile/?file=dXBsb2FkL3RlbXBsYXRlLzM1NDUvcGRmX2ZpbGVzXzEvNjI4MWYwZjJhMmEwMS5wZGY=)
- Since SBH is an elite athlete (https://www.hksi.org.hk/recipient-list/list-of-elite-sport-scholarship-athletes#accessibletabscontent0-13) she stays in HKSI, which the pools in HKSI were open for elite athletes during lockdown
- SBH travelled overseas in late April, and public swimming pools in hk started reopening in 5 May (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-03/hong-kong-to-further-ease-covid-restrictions-on-may-19-lam-says), if she travelled overseas for pools to swim at, then why do it when things are
… Read more »I think Chen Jianhong needs to approve the training.
Do we have any info about Haughey from this year? It is Tokyo literally her last LCM time recorded?
She’s done some training with chad le clos’ squad that’s being put up on ‘the swimsuit guys’ YouTube channel. She looks like she’s doing some good work there. That doesn’t totally answer your question – but she’s definitely working hard
yes , saw some training, she have some good swim (100 free ) battle with Chad le clos ‘s 100 fly
i think she would like to keep her time in secret.
Why?
It is a mind game.