Paris Olympics: As Hong Kong basks in Games gold, officials are tight-lipped about how to follow up

Praise for the 35-strong team came from both mainland Chinese officials and chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who conveyed his “heartfelt congratulations”.

“Each athlete gave it their all and unleashed their full potential. Regardless of the results, they all showed determination, perseverance and professionalism,” said Lee.

Paris also came on the back of a historic performance at the Asian Games last October, where Hong Kong athletes won 53 medals, including eight gold and 16 silver.

But apart from the three medal winners, only the table tennis duo of Doo Hoi-kem and Wong Chun-ting, who lost the mixed doubles bronze medal match, and Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying- suet, who reached the quarter-finals. mixed doubles in badminton, came close to success in France.

Elsewhere, achievements were limited to their Olympic debuts, as was the case of triathlete Jason Ng Tai-long and badminton singles player Lee Cheuk-yiu, who respectively failed to finish their race and crashed in tears at the beginning of the year. rounds.

Another debutant was cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing, who sobbed in an interview on Sunday when she admitted “I don’t know what I was doing there” after a particularly disappointing performance on the track.

Lee Cheuk-yiu also confessed to being “emotionally up and down” and said he needs to address issues of weakness and consistency.

And once again, Hong Kong needed a special invitation to send a track athlete, Felix Diu Chun-hei failed to make it out of his men’s 100m heats as he was left to fend for himself of 32-year-old Shek Wai-hung. carries the flag in gymnastics.

Of the 10 Olympic medals won in Tokyo and Paris, seven belong to Haughey, Kong – who decided to “take a break” – and Cheung Ka-long. Neither appears to have a natural successor within the group that competed in the French capital.

Ahead of Sunday’s closing ceremony, chief executive Brian Stevenson declined to do media interviews about what the plan looked like for the next four years, saying he wanted the focus to be “on the athletes” before heading to the Stade de France for take pictures with flag Ceci Lee and Lo Wai-fung.

At last year’s Asian Games, Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, vice president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong China, who was the chief of mission in Hangzhou, also dodged questions about the city’s glaring gaps in sporting talent.

Chief among those concerned was a gymnastics program that hadn’t produced an elite athlete in a decade, a similarly accomplished track and field association and a swimming association that relied heavily on Haughey’s talent to carry it.

An analysis that apparently took place last December at the Asian Games was not made public because Trisha Leahy, then director-general of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, claimed it was beyond the understanding of the common man.

And a spokesman for the institute previously said it would not comment on the performance in Hangzhou as a whole, but said the scholarship athletes who won 51 of the 53 medals proved that “our direction and strategy are on the right track”.

Last week, Leahy’s replacement, Tony Choi Yuk-kwan, said he “regretfully” could not answer questions about how his organization aimed to help athletes be more successful in 2028, saying it is up to individual sports associations to provide answers.

Sports Commissioner Sam Wong Tak-sum, meanwhile, has been in the role for more than a year and has yet to fully discuss his work in depth.

On Sunday, as the city’s leader congratulated the Hong Kong athletes, he also expressed confidence in their future success and highlighted the amount of HK$941.6 million (US$120.7 million) awarded to the institute for the financial year 2024-2025.

Estimated spending on sports development in 2024-25 would be about HK$7.9 billion, which was more than double from a decade ago, he added.

Choi, when he first refused to answer questions in May about gaps in the development and identification of athletes’ talents, also pointed the finger at the city’s sports associations, while an HKSI spokesman said its task was to “provide the government with elite sports training systems. agent”.

“The athlete development pathway usually begins with the nutrition system and training programs provided by their respective national sports associations,” the spokesperson said in an email.

“Under their recommendations, young sports talents can become HKSI scholarship athletes. Please contact your National Sports Associations for more information.”

The Post contacted the gymnastics and athletics association for comment on Tuesday. Gymnastics officials asked for some time to respond, while there was no response from the athletics governing body.

Professor Patrick Lau Wing-chung, from Baptist University’s department of exercise and public health, said there was a need for improvement in the relationship between sports associations, which were not “doing the same thing at the same pace”, and the HKSI.

“In the past, not all national sports associations really emphasized the cooperative relationship with the HKSI,” he said. “I would say that we need to further strengthen and intensify the relationship between the talent identification unit of the HKSI and the individual sports associations.”

The criteria for sports to receive HKSI funding has been largely unchanged since 2005, except for an expansion to three levels of funding in 2013. The government’s Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism previously told the Post that the system was reviewed after each Olympic Games .

At the time, he declined to discuss whether the criteria were still fit for purpose.

Lau said he believed the government should have a five-year plan that was renewed every five years, so there were “very detailed plans to develop the scale” and maintain the “successful trajectory”.

But he also suggested it was time for Hong Kong to move away from traditional sports such as athletics.

“If you want to be better, we have to look at those new and young sports like skateboarding and sport climbing,” he said. “We should be smart enough and not do the things that Westerners dominate.”