words katherine reedy

From terrorism to table tennis medals, Hong Kong’s Olympians have lived through interesting times.

If history is written by the victors, and to the winners get the spoils, then surely the underdogs must get the memories.

Consider Hong Kong's Olympic bid over the past six decades. Despite British and Chinese rule, it has fiercely held on to its independent National Olympic Committee for 13 Summer Olympics and two winter games. This year, the HKSAR is sending 34 athletes representing 13 sports – from swimming and sailing to table tennis and the triathlon – to Beijing, with genuine hopes of success. But the Fragrant Harbour's Olympic history is more a series of stumbling blocks, political intrigue, near-death crises, and eventual successes than a straight path to glory - as the keepers of its memory well recall.

Several die-hard supporters of sports culture have nurtured Hong Kong’s competitors over the years. Particularly ardent among them, AFM ‘Con’ Conway, a vice president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee (SF&OC), formerly the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, has been behind the scenes of the Fragrant Harbour’s Olympic efforts since 1960. His view of Hong Kong’s Olympic past is epic – he speaks of athletes and officials with a royal ‘we’ – and his blue eyes brighten when he recalls each episode.

“We thought our athletes needed something to aim for,” he says, describing the 1940’s movement to register Hong Kong’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) independently with the International Olympic Committee, in spite of the territory’s conflicting ties to both Britain and China. Early architects got their wish for an NOC in 1951, but, he acknowledges, “It took us a long time to get a medal.”

Hong Kong sent its first Olympians - a racially diverse group consisting of John Cheung Kin-man, Cynthia Eager, Irene Kwok Kam-ngor, and FX ‘Sonny’ Monteiro – to Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. There, they made a truly outlandish mistake: “We did not bring along any badges.” Such was the self-effacing summary that Jack Skinner, then Chairman of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, gave of Hong Kong’s first foray into the world’s greatest sports competition in a letter home to the South China Morning Post. Besides, he complained, the Games’ fireworks display was “a poor show by our standards”, the food was expensive, and the weather was bad. As they told the Post, none of the first athletes expected to finish in the placings, and none did.

Unfortunately for the Fragrant Harbour, Skinner’s pessimism hung over much of Hong Kong’s Olympic history – the International Herald Tribune once described our athletic efforts as “flabby”. Conway sighs when asked why this has been the case. "We don't have much of a sports culture here," he says. Besides, he explains, "When we were starting out [in the 1950's], we had a huge refugee problem in Hong Kong. Then, the athletes and their parents were probably even refugees."

In getting Hong Kong's athletics off the ground, all credit is due, says Conway, to A. de O. Sales, now 88 years of age, the Honorary Life President of the SF&OC. He and other supporters built Hong Kong’s Olympic athletics nearly from scratch, out of the amateur clubs that once characterized British colonial society. During his three-decade tenure, Sales negotiated for recognition, for funding, for autonomy – and even, in one hair-raising event, for the release of his athletes from terrorist custody. Literally.

For Hong Kong Olympians, Munich was more than a Steven Spielberg movie - it is part of their institutional memory. In 1972, alphabetical order had placed Hong Kong in the same housing block as Israel during the Summer Olympics in Germany. And when the Black September Palestinian terrorist organization staged its bloody takeover of the Israeli team, Hong Kong’s athletes found themselves in the line of fire.

Conway recalls hearing the harrowing tale from his colleagues. “Sales was magnificent. When he heard what was going on, he put on his blazer and went over there and started talking to everyone in Cantonese, and got them out.” Sure enough, with some negotiation by Sales, the Palestinians let the Hongkongers go free unharmed – a fate denied to the Israeli hostages.

Apart from such dramatic moments, decades of Hong Kong’s Olympic representation passed without much international fanfare, as committee leaders tried to develop local talent. The Tokyo Games in 1964 saw the one and only time a delegation included a team sport: field hockey. Con Conway, a hockey player himself, accompanied the team. “We got a wild card,” he says, excited at the memory. “Two teams dropped out for some strange reason, and [the officials] said, ‘Go play, but we don’t want any cricket scores.’” Hong Kong ultimately lost to Pakistan, but – “We didn’t let anybody down,” says Conway.

But such modest successes were nearly eclipsed by political changes. In 1997, as Hong Kong moved from British to Chinese control, Olympic officials became anxious about Hong Kong’s status. “They’re going to keep on coming after us,” Conway recalls telling his colleagues. “[Juan] Samaranch [the president of the International Olympic Committee] was coming for a change of sovereignty, a resumption of sovereignty from China. But Sales said, according to the International Olympic Committee constitution there can be no discussion of politics, and this is about politics. There will only be one change to Hong Kong, that in the future it will be known as ‘Hong Kong, China’,” Conway concludes, jabbing his finger in the air triumphantly. “We got them to put it in writing.”

But even Conway concedes that it took Hong Kong decades of preparation and training athletes before it could compete at a medal-winning level. At long last, in Atlanta, USA, in 1996, one woman initiated a new era of Hong Kong sports. Cheung Chau-born superstar Lee Lai-shan, ‘San San’, who won the gold for windsurfing, inspired a generation of athletes and bolstered Hong Kong’s Olympic pride and self-esteem. Three Olympics later, Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching came home from Athens with the silver medal in men’s table-tennis doubles. And, spurred on by more interest and athletic development, Hong Kong sent a handful of individuals to compete in speed skating in the Winter Olympics held in Turin, Italy, in 2000 and Salt Lake City, USA, in 2004. Like the first Hong Kong swimmers, none placed, although supporters claim it may just be a matter of time before Hong Kongers have a chance on the rink or slopes.

One of the best witnesses to the era of gold and silver was Fenella Ng, who competed in swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics and then, after a tremendous hiatus of 12 years, in the Sydney 2000 games in rowing. “Although a lot of changes were made during the ’80s, including many outstanding results by our athletes at the international level,” she says, “I feel the true turning point was when San San won Hong Kong’s first Olympic medal by winning the women’s windsurfing event. Since that time, there has been more public awareness and interest.”

Ng, now a businesswoman and occasional motivational speaker, is part of an elite group of athletes that have competed in two different Olympic sports, as well as the intimate group of athletes who have represented Hong Kong - just over 250 individuals in all. “It is a fraternity,” says the avuncular Conway, explaining that Hong Kong’s athletes form a tight-knit group, and many, including San San, marry within the athletic fold. “San San will come around and show off her two girls. She never has to worry about babysitters,” he says. For, as Ng says, “Athletes do like to stick together, and for a reason – we have a lot in common.”

Part of which is a tremendous sense of nationalist pride. Apart from Jack Skinner's letter home, a report in the South China Morning Post about Hong Kong’s first games in 1952 is representative: “...[t]here were two great moments which [the team] would never forget. The first was at the flag-raising ceremony when Hong Kong’s own flag was hoisted for the first time. The second was when the Colony’s contingent marched into the ground carrying the Hong Kong banner. It was really wonderful.” And it still will be in Beijing 2008.

Honghong Kongkong

Honghong represents the spirit of Hong Kong, particularly Kowloon, the land of nine dragons. He also brings the spirit of tradition. We find this majestic being cresting the waves on dragon boats, rearing his head on the city's official logo, and sharing a spirit of competitiveness with Hong Kong's athletes. His golden colour signifies success and prosperity, as well as the Olympic medal won by Lee Lai-shan.

Kongkong is the spirit of Hong Kong's present and future. She wears a crown of skyscrapers, buildings that stretch towards the heavens and stand as symbols of continued growth and change. She has the body of a horse, the symbol of speed and strength and the animal that graces our equestrian fields. She is silver to signify resilience and the Olympic medals won by Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching.

Hong Kong's Olympic History

1949-50
The Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee is formed.
1951
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes Hong Kong's bid for an independent National Olympic Committee (NOC).
1952
Hong Kong sends four swimmers, two men and two women, to the Helsinki Olympics.
1956
Two swimmers compete in Melbourne, Australia.
1960
Hong Kong sends just and one swimmer and one shooter go to the games in Rome, Italy.
1964
Team expands to include competitors in athletics, boxing, hockey, shooting, swimming and yachting - a total of 34 sportsmen and -women. Hong Kong also competes in its only team sport, hockey, in Tokyo.
1968
The team shrinks back to 12 athletes in Mexico City.
1972
Athletes stationed in the same residence as the Israeli Olympic team escape Black September terrorists. Athletes compete, for the first time, in fencing and judo.
1976
For the first time, Hong Kong competes
in cycling and canoeing, in Montreal, Canada.
1980
Hong Kong joins other sporting representatives in boycotting the Moscow Olympic Games, although it sends one representative.
1984
Hong Kong sends its largest delegation yet, with 65 members - 46 athletes - to Los Angeles, USA. New sports include archery and diving.
1988
Hong Kong sends its first table tennis players to Seoul, South Korea. The size of the delegation tops out at 70 members.
1992
Badminton and rowing are added to the Hong Kong roster in Barcelona.
1996
Lee Lai Shan wins the gold medal in windsurfing in Atlanta, USA.
1998
A. de O. Sales is succeeded by Timothy Fok as President of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee.
1999
The ASF&OC drops the Amateur from its title.
2002
Two speed skaters, Cordia Tsoi Po-yee and Christy Ren, compete in the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA.
2004
The men's table tennis doubles team, Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching, takes the silver medal in Athens, Greece.
2006
Hong Kong sends one speed skater to Turin, Italy, for the winter games.
2008
34 athletes compete in Beijing.

The Facts and Figures
Number of Olympics competed in before 2008: 13
Number of athletes competing in all games, total: 306
Medals won: 2
Most frequent competitor: Peter Rull, Sr., in shooting, 5 games
Most frequently-competed in sport: Swimming
Least frequently-competed in sport: Hockey