The swimsuit and cap worn by Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey when she made history at the Tokyo Olympics have sold at auction for a huge sum, it has been revealed. Haughey is this weekend poised to make her return to the pool after a three-month break, in Hong Kong’s Long Course Swimming Time Trial. But her old kit has continued to notch up achievements for the 27-year-old during her time out, selling at Splash Foundation’s 10th anniversary gala for a sum higher than that fetched elsewhere by the Olympic trunks of the great Michael Phelps. A winning bidder last month paid HK$180,000 (US$23,210) for the Arena Bishamon Carbon Glide suit and Hong Kong team cap worn by Haughey in Tokyo when she claimed the city’s first Olympic medal in swimming, storming to silver in the 200 metres freestyle on July 28, 2021. She went on to add silver in the 100m freestyle in Tokyo, then bronze in both events in the Paris Games last year. Donated by Haughey to the foundation, the kit has climbed a podium of its own, becoming one of the highest-priced swimming memorabilia lots ever sold at auction. Speedo trunks worn by American great Phelps at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 sold for US$20,000 (HK$155,112) last year. Phelps’ eight gold medals at those Games were the most by any athlete at a single Olympics. Splash Foundation creates opportunities for people from disadvantaged communities to learn to swim. The proceeds of the auction will fund programmes whose beneficiaries include migrant domestic workers and other ethnic minority groups, children and parents from low-income communities, and children with special educational needs. By 2030, Splash aims to teach 25,000 people to swim. Hong Kong has the longest coastline of any city, as well as an abundance of swimming pools, yet 47 per cent of its secondary school pupils cannot swim. Neither can more than half of the world’s population. Women account for most of them, with two out of every three women unable to do so, Splash Foundation said.