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, and only Olympic gold medal for Hong Kong, in the women's mistral boardsailing class, at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the first champion in the Asian Games representing Hong Kong when it was a British colony. Hong Kong had never been able to win any medals for as long as it had participated in the Olympic games since 1952 until Lee Lai-Shan's victory at Atlanta 1996. Notably, the 1996 Summer Olympics was the last international sporting event that Hong Kong participated in as a British Dependent Territory, making Lee's medal the first and last medal that the Hong Kong team 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 be awarded an honorary Doctorate in social sciences by 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. 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 was also the final torchbearer in the 2008 Summer Olympics sailing opening ceremony at Qingdao International Marina.
1995 –1996 & 1999–2000 – Named one of Hong Kong Sports Stars of the Year for four times
1995 – Selected Best Athlete in Hong Kong for 1994
1998 – Voted one of Hong Kong Top Ten Athletes for 1988–1998 by Hong Kong Sports Press Association
1999 – Selected one of China's Top Ten Athletes for 1998
1999 – Awarded Special Prize in the "Best Athletes of the Century" selection jointly organised by the Chinese Olympic Committee, Henry Fok Foundation and China Sports Press Association
Personal information
Lee married longtime partner Wong Tak-Sum , who has also represented Hong Kong internationally in windsurfing, and gave birth to a daughter, Haylie Wong, in August 2005, and to a second daughter in August 2007. This was one of the reasons she took a break from competition, though she has not ruled out competing altogether. In 2008, she was involved in the Summer Olympics again when she was one of the presenting team for ATV, in addition to commentating in the sailing event. In 2006, Lee was featured in a Hang Seng Bank advertisement, in which she said the cost of raising a child in Hong Kong will be HK$4 million. It has caused a slight controversy in Hong Kong as most people do not think it will actually cost that much, and most think that Hang Seng Bank exaggerated the figures.
