Hong Kong has only ever won one Olympic gold medal. It was awarded to Lee Lai-shan, who took first place in women's windsurfing at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and with only a few weeks until the London Olympics, the Hong Kong windsurfing team is determined to see history repeat itself.
The stakes will be especially high at these Games, following the recent shock announcement that the sport is to be axed as an Olympic event. This could very well be the last opportunity for Hong Kong's windsurfing team to live the Olympic dream.
The team is installed close to the Olympic sailing arena at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, in Dorset, England. Four years of intense preparation came into focus at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, held on the same course, just 50 days before the main event. The annual six-day regatta attracts the world's best sailors and windsurfers, and outcomes in an Olympic year often indicate where the medals are likely to go in August.
'It is the dress rehearsal for the Olympics,' says Hong Kong's head windsurfing coach, Rene Appel. It was Appel who guided Lee, aka San San, to gold in Atlanta 16 years ago and it is he who is tasked with repeating the feat this year. Two young athletes, Andy Leung Ho-tsun and Hayley Chan Hei-man, have been selected to represent Hong Kong. Neither of them has competed in the Olympics before.
FOR THE SKANDIA EVENT, there are 60 entries in the men's RS:X windsurfing competition, including Leung, sail No HK2, and 45 entries in the women's event, including University of Hong Kong student Chan, sail No HK5.
The women's event is particularly testing this year; both the Beijing Games silver medallist, Alessandra Sensini, of Italy, and bronze medallist, Bryony Shaw, are here. Sensini is the only woman to have won four Olympic medals in windsurfing. It's a challenging field and Chan will have her work cut out.
'She's an impressive athlete,' Appel says of Chan. 'Very strong; a model Olympic athlete.'