Pedrey Ng Wing-lam overcomes perfectionism to pursue Olympic table tennis dream

She scored a flawless 45 in her IB exam, but it was accepting she did not have “to be perfect at everything” that cured Pedrey Ng Wing-lam of the temper tantrums threatening to undermine a promising table tennis career.

Poised for her Asian Games debut this month, the 22-year-old is five years into a quantitative finance degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, having opted against studying overseas to maximise her sporting potential.

“I believed in myself … it’s my dream to play in the Olympics and win a medal for Hong Kong,” Ng said. “That’s something not everybody has an opportunity to do, and if I want to be an athlete, it has to be while I’m young.”

As a child, Ng juggled table tennis with rugby, swimming, athletics, cross country, tennis and ice skating, but a place in a select squad at 10 narrowed her focus, and one year later she was elevated to Hong Kong’s youth table tennis team.

Ng had actually come to the sport because of her older brother, Pedro, who was a keen player and is partially responsible for Ng’s English name.

“My childhood best friend was called Audrey and I wanted the same name but my mum didn’t allow it,” Ng said. “I combined Audrey with my brother’s name and got Pedrey.”