'Smaller Olympic presence will still be a success'
The chief executive of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Tony Choi, said on Sunday that qualifying for fewer events at the Paris Olympics compared with the Tokyo Games will still be considered a success for Hong Kong athletes. Speaking on a TVB programme, Choi estimated that Hong Kong would qualify for about 30 events in all disciplines this time, about 10 fewer than in Tokyo three years ago.  Choi said the SAR's success at the Tokyo Games was partly due to its Covid-19 measures, which minimised the pandemic's impact on elite athletes' training and gave Hong Kong the edge over other places. Hong Kong won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals in Tokyo, its best showing at an Olympics. "When the Hong Kong Sports Institute was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, we didn't stop training for a single day. I believe many countries and regions couldn't do that. So back then, we had such advantages," he said. "This time, we're getting more than 30 tickets, which is still reaching our target." Choi also expressed hopes of breaking the pattern of Hong Kong winning medals every other Olympics, since windsurfer Lee Lai-shan captured gold in Atlanta in 1996 for the city's first medal ever. “We got a medal in the 1996 [Olympics], then in 2000 we didn’t. And in 2004 we had one and 2008 we didn’t. 2012 we got a medal then 2016 we didn’t... Honestly speaking, the Hong Kong team’s results are relatively inconsistent. We hope everything can be more stable,” he said.  “We hope to win at least a medal in every Olympics... We need to maintain a stable performance in the international sports scene in order to compete with other sports powerhouses.” Choi said Hong Kong is already competitive in sports such as fencing, swimming, table tennis, badminton, karate and squash, and it'll take time to catch up in other disciplines.