He trains in Europe, but says that it never occurred to him to compete for anywhere else but his true home: Hong Kong
Olympic event: alpine skiing—slalom
A self-professed “adrenaline junkie”, Adrian Yung Hau-tsuen is the youngest member of the 2022 Winter Olympic team and the first to qualify. His first taste of skiing was on holiday to Japan as a toddler. He lived in Hong Kong until he was five and moved to the UK where, aged eight, he began ski racing and training with British club Downhill Only; at 12, he was selected for the under-14 English national squad. He was then recruited by the Hong Kong team and began competing internationally at events, including the first Children of Asia Winter Games in Russia and China’s 14th National Winter Games in 2019.
Here, he explains his journey to Beijing.
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Congratulations on getting to Beijing! Did you have a feeling that you’d qualify? Or did it come as a surprise to you?
It definitely was a surprise to qualify; I was not really thinking about getting the opportunity for the Olympics. I thought I’d have to work for a few more years. When I got the message from the Ski Association saying that I qualified, I was in disbelief. It was a childhood dream, and I didn’t think I could reach it this quickly.
Qualifying along with Audrey [King, skier] and Sidney [Chu, short-track speed skater] makes the largest Winter Olympic cohort for Hong Kong to date. No matter what happens at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, you’ve still made history. How does that feel?
It definitely feels very unreal. To be able to go to the Olympics alone is incredible. And then to have the honour of going there with the biggest team Hong Kong has ever sent in history is just the cherry on top of the cake.
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What’s pushed the Hong Kong ski team over the last few years? Have there been any factors that have really helped with your training?
There has always been a lot of commercial and holiday skaters from Hong Kong. But I think the boom in interest in racing probably just came from Arabella Ng and the incredible work that the Ski Association is doing to promote ski racing. Arabella kind of helped push that forward with her history-making first as an athlete from Hong Kong in the 2018 Winter Olympics for ski racing.