5 inspiring Hong Kong athletes and industry professionals share their goals, challenges and hopes for the future of the local sports scene

I grew up in a small town in Maine and as [is the case] in many small American towns, sport plays a leading role [in day-to-day life]. My older siblings played basketball, and I thought for sure that that was what I would do too, but I wasn’t old enough to join a team—so my mum signed me up for swimming instead. In high school, I picked up field hockey and tennis, and continued with them at the collegiate level.

Sport has so much to offer and so much to teach us about ourselves—but that tends to come much later. The initial hook for me was 100 per cent [because of its] social [benefits]—making friends, being part of a team and having fun. If those elements weren’t there, I’m not sure how long I would have lasted. 

I would love sport to be more accessible in schools. Kids should have ample opportunities to try different sports at different ages.  I find that when kids do play sports, it becomes very serious and performance-driven far too quickly; there is no middle ground.  Kids often drop out or choose one sport at the expense of other sports or activities. I don’t think that is healthy, nor in a child’s best interest in the long run. 

My goal with Splash is to make learning to swim more accessible. Hong Kong is surrounded by beautiful beaches and has one of the best public pool provisions in the world, yet [according to a survey by the Hong Kong Baptist University] 47 per cent of Hong Kong secondary students do not know how to swim. We want to shift the mindset around learning to swim, make it more accessible to communities that don’t have the resources and build awareness about how swimming impacts our physical, mental and social well-being in the long term. Making swimming more accessible is good for the sport, but more importantly, it is good for community health and wellness.

Co-founding a non-profit has been incredibly hard. We face all the challenges of a start-up with an added layer of scrutiny or unrealistic expectations that charities seem to attract. It feels like a constant game of one step forward, two steps back, and it is incredibly frustrating when results and progress are slow to come. =This is when I appreciate the resiliency that sport has given me. When I am clear on my ultimate goal, the only option is to reflect, regroup and keep going. Quitting is never an option.  

As a typical local Hongkonger, I was raised to learn multiple extra curricular activities. Swimming was one of them. I can say the nature in this sport inspired me, because I fell in love with the peace and quiet of the water.

I would love to see a change in perspective and the prioritisation of mental health in the sports scene. As athletes have many stakeholders—parents, coaches, schools—it’s crucial for the stakeholders to know the importance of mental health, especially when it comes to high-performance in sports.

My current goal is to qualify individually in 100m backstroke for the Paris Olympics and make my fifth appearance at the Olympic games.

Change is the biggest challenge, as I’ve been in the industry for so long [Au started swimming at the age of 9 and broke her first Hong Kong record aged 13]. Finding ways to motivate myself, stay disciplined and get creative with my training has been key.

For as long as I can remember, being a jockey was all I wanted to do. I grew up with horses and was intent on making them part of my profession. I love any type of sport and my personality lends itself well to the sports industry. I have always been extremely competitive and active—sitting behind a desk would not be the career for me.

While Hong Kong hosts some incredible international events, such as Liv Golf, the Rugby Sevens and the Hong Kong Jockey Club international races, it would be great to have even more international events, so visitors can see Hong Kong at its best and the sporting talent it has to offer.

It's important that sport is made more accessible to the public in Hong Kong. I love golf but noticed that it can be very difficult for many people to access a golf course here. I would love to see more public golf courses in Hong Kong.

My goal is to always achieve the best results possible for the horse, owners, trainers and myself. While I always do my best to win, the nature of the sport means you can’t win every race—so I try to use every situation to improve, learn and adapt. I am extremely competitive, as I imagine every athlete is. Having been champion jockey six times in Qatar, the ultimate goal is to one day be a champion jockey here. I think the best way to strive toward that and achieve my goal is to make sure that I consistently turn up to race day both mentally and physically prepared.

Dealing with defeat on a regular basis is part of the job. If a jockey is operating at a ten per cent winning strike rate, for example, that would be considered a good winning statistic—but it also means that 90 per cent of the time, you are losing. That can be a challenge at times, but it is something that we as jockeys deal with on a day to day basis. Mindset plays such an important part in overcoming this, and I try to work on this with a sports psychologist. It’s as important to put as much effort into adopting a healthy mind as it is a healthy body. Training our mind is often overlooked, but it’s just as important as our physical fitness.

Playing sports is always where I feel most like myself. I love playing ultimate frisbee and being with my team. I am the founder of Women In Sports Empowered (Wise), a non-profit dedicated to empowering women and girls in sport. It’s very important to not only encourage women and girls to get involved in sports, but to raise awareness around why it’s so important too.

It’s imperative to have the proper infrastructure to make sports in Hong Kong thrive; from venues, to doctors and physios, nutritionists, lawyers and finance people too. I would love to see Hong Kong’s sports scene thrive and contribute to the economy like it does in Australia, New Zealand, the US or the UK.

At Wise, we strive for more gender balance in sports and leadership positions, but I also hope for people of different backgrounds to be able to have equal access and opportunities to participate. I wish people could see the sports industry on the same level as the finance or hospitality industries. I hope parents, particularly in local communities, see sports as an industry that is a viable career path for their children one day.

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