From living in darkness to shining in lawn bowling: Calvin’s story of determination

On the bowling green, Calvin Kwok Wing is no different from other bowling athletes. He grips the bowl in the palm of his right hand, then advances his left foot and bends his right knee, gracefully swinging the bowl forward with his right arm. But unlike abled athletes who can aim using their eyes, Calvin, limited by his very minimal eyesight, can only barely see the jack, a white or yellow ball that serves as the target placed some 23 to 34 metres away.

Despite his weak eyesight, Calvin has the courage and determination to rise above his physical disability. In 2017, Calvin won the world champion title in lawn bowling for the visually impaired. Winning the world championship was a dream come true for Calvin. For many years, the elite athlete also held in his heart another aspiration: to study at a university. His other dream came true when he was admitted to the Bachelor of Health Education (Honours) (BHE) programme at the Department of Health and Physical Education (HPE) in 2020 as a beneficiary of EdUHK’s dual career pathway development project for elite athletes. 

Due to his glaucoma, Calvin’s right eye has been almost totally blind from the moment he was born. With his innate affinity for sports and the intact vision of his left eye, however, Calvin still managed to participate in various sports activities during secondary school. Unfortunately, the ultimate blow to Calvin came when the condition of his left eye deteriorated suddenly when he was around 20 years old. With the near total loss of his eyesight, Calvin subsequently locked himself up at home, where he stayed for almost three years. He described his attitude as “self-abandoning” at the time.  

“Although I gave up on myself, I am lucky that my family members didn’t abandon me. They encouraged me to reach out again,” Calvin said. With support from his family members and friends, the talented bowler, whose left eye still had some minimal vision, was able to emerge from the darkest period of his life in 2002. “Friends introduced me to the Hong Kong Sports Association for the Physically Disabled, where I met many people facing similar situations. I found that I still had a great passion for sports and joined many of the association’s sports training classes and activities,” he recalled.

At the association, Calvin picked up lawn bowling—a sport completely new to him at the time—as his favourite sports activity. Since then, he has rebuilt his life as a lawn bowler. He trained with the determination to succeed, and his skills improved rapidly. In 2004, he represented Hong Kong for the first time to compete in the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled held in Malaysia.  

Calvin’s efforts paid off when he won international medals for the first time at the 2009 International Blind Bowls Association (IBBA) World Championships in Melbourne. “In Melbourne, I won the silver medal in the men’s singles event, and the bronze in the men’s pairs event,” he remembered. The most exciting moment in his life as a sportsman arrived in 2017, when he won the IBBA World Championships title of the B4 men’s singles event and a silver medal in the mixed pairs category in the competition held in Cape Town, South Africa. In the 2018 Asian Para Games held in Indonesia, Calvin grabbed a silver in the men’s singles event and a gold in the mixed pairs event.

Extraordinary discipline was required for these accomplishments. To make a living, Calvin joined an NGO which provides residential care, training and vocational development services for the mentally disadvantaged in 2003. “During the day, I worked at the NGO. At night, my bowling training would begin. Meanwhile, I completed several social work and rehabilitation-related courses in my spare time when working at this NGO,” he said. Calvin left the NGO in 2019 after working there for 16 years to focus on fulfilling his ambition to become a professional athlete. While he had been receiving training at the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) for many years, he changed his status at HKSI to full-time athlete in 2019. Since then, Calvin has received all-rounded training as a professional bowler at the institute.  

While realising his aspiration of pursuing a career as a bowler, Calvin never lost the desire to study for a university degree. “Thanks to the dual career pathways arrangement between HKSI and EdUHK, I was given an opportunity to start studying for the BHE programme at this university in the 2020/21 academic year,” Calvin said with a smile.

Though classes in the first year of his studies were mainly conducted online because of the pandemic, Calvin said the systematic academic training of the BHE programme was still useful. “Classes in sports science taught me how to set objective physical fitness measures, while the mindfulness lessons opened my eyes to using means like breathing practices to reduce the pressure sportsmen usually face during competitions,” he remarked. 

With the simple objective of rolling the bowls as close as possible to the jack, lawn bowling may not seem as physically demanding as other games. But Calvin said this is not the case. “The bowl curls down on the green as it is shaped non-uniformly, with one side of it being heavier than the other. It demands a large amount of concentration, dexterity and strategy to master the game. The weather conditions can vary a lot, too. Some matches are organised under a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius,” he said. This is additionally challenging to a visually impaired athlete like Calvin, whose weakened vision obstructs him from precisely gauging the position of the target. “I need to feel the distance, sometimes with help from my coaches and teammates, and apply the right force in the right direction when rolling out the bowl,” he explained.

To keep his body fit, he joins as many competitions as possible. Calvin’s competitive nature drives him to raise the bar for himself. “I compete with abled athletes in Division One of the Premier League organised by the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association. I am the only visually disabled athlete competing with abled persons. That gets me really fired up,” he said.

Calvin said the lifespan of a lawn bowler can be very long, and professional athletes can still compete in top-level games even at the age of 60. “When I want to continue my career as a professional bowler, I’d like to have more opportunities to share my life experiences with young people after completing the BHE programme,” said Calvin. He hopes his story can serve not only as a voice for the disabled community, but also as an inspiration for people in general, motivating them to overcome difficulties and remain positive.

Indeed, as a father of three, his decision of going back to school has already set a good example to his kids, showing them that people should not give up on their goals so easily. From locking himself up in darkness to reaching the world’s top echelon of the game and even pursuing his dream of studying at a university, Calvin is living his life to the fullest. Calvin has fought hard against all the odds in his life. To people who are struggling with hardships, he advised: “Face challenges when they come your way. If you take one step forward at a time, you can eventually achieve your goal.”