Vegan Fencer Vivian Kong Wins Asian Championship Épée Gold

Vegan fencer Vivian Kong has won gold in the women's individual épée at the Asian Fencing Championships in Bangkok, beating South Korea's defending champion Kang Young-mi 10-9 in a nail-biting final on Tuesday, June 19, the International Fencing Federation reports.

Kong's semi-final was just as tight. She edged Korea's Lee Hye-in 15-14, while Kang came through 14-12 against Kong's Hong Kong team-mate Kaylin Hsieh.

The 24-year-old becomes the first athlete from Hong Kong to win the women's épée title at the championships, according to the Hong Kong Sports Institute. And she has done it barely a year after surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

That injury, suffered while training for last year's world championships, is also what made Kong go vegan. She had been pescatarian, but while recovering she kept searching for the foods that would help her heal fastest, and the answers all pointed to plants. She ate anti-inflammatory foods such as pumpkin and turmeric, and now has green vegetables and tofu almost every day. The difference in her recovery was dramatic:

After I turned vegan, I trained a lot more and I would have as much muscle pain, but it wouldn't last three days like before. Now I could get ready to go the next day.

Not everyone was convinced. When she won bronze in Cuba a few months after her return, her family said she missed out on gold because she didn't eat meat, she told the South China Morning Post. This gold should settle that argument. “I can be an example to show it's possible,” she said.

Kong follows other plant-powered champions this year. 72-year-old Pat Reeves broke her own deadlift world record this month, JaVale McGee won his second NBA title, and figure skater Meagan Duhamel retired as a world and Olympic champion.

Touché. No meat, no problem.