Yu Chui Yee is one of the world's best known wheelchair fencers. A talented and charismatic athlete, Yee, 29, has won a medal each of the nine times she has competed in Paralympic competitions, seven of them gold.
At the age of 11, Yee was diagnosed with bone cancer which meant that part of her left leg had to be removed. Following her illness she initially focused on swimming, but when a friend introduced her to wheelchair fencing she was captivated by the sport's direct physical competition and complex tactics.
Competing with the epee and the foil, Yee rose quickly through the ranks of the Hong Kong team. At Athens 2004, at age 20, she took part in her first Paralympic Games. She swept the board there, becoming the first wheelchair fencer to win gold in both the individual and team events with the foil and epee.
There was more success for Yee at Beijing 2008, where she again won a gold medal in the category A foil competition. In the epee competition, she lost 15-13 in a fiercely fought final against China’s Zhang Chuncui.
Yee has since admitted that this loss was very hard to take and that it took great support from her close team to help her recover from the defeat.
And recover she did, again taking gold in both disciplines at London 2012 and adding a bronze medal for the women's open category epee team event.
Her achievements in the sport have made her a star in her native Hong Kong where in 2007 she was named on the list of Top Ten outstanding Hong Kong people. As well as being a prominent ambassador for her country she is also an ambassador for Paralympic athletes everywhere as a member of the IPC Athletes’ Council.
The council is the collective voice of Paralympic athletes within the IPC and the greater Paralympic Movement, acting as a liaison between IPC decision-makers and Paralympic athletes.
Yee has previously talked about becoming a lawyer once her career as a wheelchair fencer is over. Before that, however, she'll be looking to make a case for herself as the best female wheelchair fencer of all time when she competes at Rio 2016.
