Whether it's standing up to bullies, opening a clinic in the middle of a pandemic, or overseeing Fiji's first ever Olympic medal, Cathy Wong is a born leader.
The mother of three is synonymous with rugby and sports leadership in the Pacific and was made an Officer of the Order of Fiji for "her contribution and service to the country."
Cathy Wong. Photo: Supplied
A physiotherapist by profession, she still runs two clinics in Suva and Nadi and sits on the medical commissions of Oceania Rugby, Oceania Football and the Oceania National Olympic Committee.
"Last year during Covid I opened up another practice in Nadi, and that's when Nadi had gone into shutdown because Nadi was our prime case last year," she said.
"People would ask me 'why are you opening a clinic in Nadi in the middle of a hotspot?' and my answer was 'why not? If you can give me a reason not to open, a justifiable reason not to open then I will'. No one could so we're still there and we're still going."
But a career working in high performance sport wasn't always on the cards.
"It was something that fell into my lap," she said.
"I thought sport was just going to be an entertainment type thing - you get a career and then you move on and that was it. My initial interest was as a paediatric physiotherapist looking after handicapped children - I spent seven years as a paediatric physio.
"After years of applying for a scholarship which never eventuated they gave me a scholarship to go and do sports medicine...I was not really interested in it and I was told that if you refuse the scholarship they will not offer it in the future, so I took it up and the rest is history."
Cathy Wong's first sporting love was hockey and she quickly caught the attention of the Fiji national coach Dr Robin Mitchell, who has been her professional mentor and friend for nearly four decades.
"When I entered medical school I still loved hockey - no intentions of anything to do with rugby, nothing whatsoever," she recalled.
"At medical school I formed the medical school hockey team then upon graduating my mentor today, Dr Robin Mitchell, he approached me and said would I consider trying out for the hockey national team? Like anybody else you jump at the opportunity but my rise to fame only lasted ten minutes and that was it (laughing).
"I thought ok, this is total disaster, maybe I should just focus on doing the physio, then he approached me again to look after Team Fiji as the official physio so that's when I said yes and the rest is history."
Two years later, in 1987, Fiji Rugby came calling.
"At that time I was a new rookie out of medical school, married, having a young family so everyone would have jumped at this opportunity but for me I said yes but there were conditions that I had to put down, and I must say the enabling environment at the Fiji Rugby Union at the time allowed all this to happen," she said.
"So I worked with the team while they were at home but when they travelled I did not travel, so we set up networks around the world."
Cathy Wong (front row centre) during a Women's Leadership Forum in 2019. Photo: Supplied
Working in a male-dominated field, Wong said she was always treated as a professional and was defined by the work that she did and not her gender.
"The environment I worked in was a very enabling environment. I was asked as a professional to be the physio, I was not asked because I was a woman and that for me set the benchmark.
"So when people said 'did you struggle?' I said 'no', because they allowed me to create my own path. The FRU at the time said 'you're the physio, do what you've got to do', so I was very familiar with that type of environment. They did not see me as a woman, they saw me as a professional and that is something I've taken with me and I still use it til today."
The Oceania Rugby's Women's Director became the region's first female representative on the World Rugby Council in 2018. Wong said she had been fortunate in her career, but acknowledged that was not the case for the majority of women in Fiji and the Pacific.
"I must say I was probably one of the lucky ones," she said. "It's not the norm, it's definitely not the norm. The majority of women will have it hard."
Wong worked with the FRU to set-up clear pathways to make sure there was equity and equality around the field but said it was always a work in progress.
"I had appointed a female physio to travel with one of the teams," she recalled.
"I was asked 'do we have another physio?' and I said 'is she not competent enough?' They said 'no she's very very competent, we just don't want a woman.'
"I had to take a step back. My instant reaction was if you don't have a physio you don't get anybody but because of the environment, it changes over time. I had to go back, look at the whole thing and then I said, 'she's a competent one and it's either her or you don't get a physio'.
"Then they asked me 'what about you?' That's when it dawned on me that they did not see me as a woman so I had set the benchmark to that level so I had to try and create that same environment where they saw other people exactly the same."
Cathy Wong during Oceania Rugby's 2019 Annual General Meeting. Photo: Supplied
In close to four decades involved in high performance sport, Cathy Wong's favourite sporting memory was from her time as physio for the Flying Fijians.
"For me the standout moment was when we played South Africa in the quarter finals in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. We lost to South Africa but that's when I realised the potential that we had," she recalled.
"That's when the vision that I had - I wanted to see Fiji's flag fly on an international podium. That's when I realised we could and we will medal at an international event."
Nine years later that vision came to pass at the Rio Olympics and, as Team Fiji's Chef de Mission, Cathy Wong had a front-row seat.
"Rio as the CDM I actually did not have any emotions. I was on the go-mode: removed all emotions from myself, just bang bang do this, this has got to be done," she recalled.
"So after the games when the Prime Minister is sitting next to me and said I wanted this, this, this done it was like no time to celebrate and shake the boys hands. Yes I was happy, screaming, smiling but same time bang, shield comes on, this is what you've got to do so did I have time to actually celebrate the win in Rio? No.
"It was only when I got home and took one month off that's when I realised, 'holy crap - we've actually done it.'"
Being appointed Chef de Mission for Team Fiji was the pinnacle achievement of her career, Wong said.
"As I started to develop in my sports admin role I realised I've been to enough Olympics, I've been to World Cups as a physio - I wanted to lead the team."
"Especially with setting up the Fiji Rugby High Performance environment I knew that to win the gold medal we had to move from an amateur level to a professional in terms of sport. Most sports in Fiji are run on an amateur basis by amateurs and I realised we had to create a professional environment to compete at that level."
Cathy Wong was Fiji's Chef de Mission at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Photo: Team Fiji
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, with hard decisions leading to some strained relationships outside of the sporting arena.
"I lost some good friends along the way. It's not easy, it can be a very lonely journey but for me consistent hard work and having the right team (was essential)," she said.
"Having the right team is not easy - it takes time to mould and grow your team - and I suppose this is where my journey as a leader came about, was studying, saying this is what I wanted - Fiji's flag on the podium. What do I need to get there? How do I get there? What team do I need to get there?
"Then we started planning and it took us nine years for that to eventuate."
Being one of ten siblings and attending boarding school played a major role in shaping her personality and core values.
"You have to work hard and, going back to my parents teaching, when I saw things what I thought was not done right I would stand up for it, so I naturally started standing up for things that I saw was incorrect, like if I saw bullying happening I would stand up for the person being bullied, small as I was but I still did it," she said.
"I think it may have been my upbringing as a child, I come from a family of 10. 10 brothers and sisters - you learn to stand up and fight. I'm number eight so if you didn't stand up and fight, you want that dress, you want this shoe, you want that.
"I think it goes right back to how you're brought up and then the rest, that leadership journey, that's when i realised I don't see myself as a leader but the rest of Fiji does and then I have a responsibility to just make sure I do deliver."
Fiji's 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign was a pivotal moment for Cathy Wong. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
That responsibility also means that her voice and viewpoints will travel far.
"If I didn't have this role I would just blast something on Facebook. Now, everything I do I run it through a few people before I put it out and I'm very conscious of how I present myself, what I say, what I do because it does reflect (back on me and my family),' she said.
"This was mentioned to me by my daughter. At home we're not different, we have our disagreements and all of that, then I would say this person is so and so and she would say 'mum, you can't say that. If you say that the whole of Fiji will
think this person is so and so'.
"That's when I realised I have to be very very careful what and how and when I say what I do because I had a responsibility to live up to that."
Wong plans to take a step back from her clinical work and take on more of a mentorship role, but still has "unfinished business" to attend to in the world of sports administration.
She still holds a number of influential roles, including as Vice President of the Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC), a Board member and Women's Director for Oceania Rugby and one of the regional body's two representatives on the influential World Rugby Council, where she also sits on the Regional and Women's Advisory Committees.
Tonga's Aloma Johannson and Fiji's Cathy Wong at the Oceania Rugby AGM in 2019. Photo: Supplied
The veteran administrator has been a trailblazer throughout her professional life and is determined to see more women step into leadership roles.
"If I see a potential women and I notice that I haven't seen her application I will ring her and tell her 'why didn't you apply for that position?' I said 'apply - get your pen and put it to paper now and do it'.
"So my role is to really just encourage them to test the waters, go out there and do it."
