Speed skating coach Lu Shuo has accused the SAR's Olympic Committee of being apathetic towards the task of raising training funds for their first winter Olympian ahead of February's Salt Lake City Games. However, a top Olympic official hit back, saying the ice-skating union had only itself to blame for the lack of money.
Lu said he had lost six weeks of training time since October, when 18-year-old Cordia Tsoi Po-yee qualified for short-track speed skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympics, because the union was still waiting for $200,000 in overseas training funds to be approved by the Government. Hong Kong doesn't have an Olympic-sized rink.
Lu said: 'We haven't had any systematic training here since we came back in October from the US. Tsoi is in a bad mood as her rivals have already been training in the US. The Games are only two months away and we've cancelled most of our training in the US. We will head off to Salt Lake City directly from the mainland in February.
'We understand that it takes the Sports Development Board some time to proceed with the paperwork but the Olympic Committee has been of little help.'
He added: 'All the Olympic Committee was concerned about was how many people we're allowed to send and what uniform we must wear during the Games. They didn't say a word about our preparation.'
Hong Kong Olympic Committee honorary secretary Pang Chung denied giving Tsoi the cold shoulder, saying that Lu was confused about its role. He also said the Ice Skating Union lacked a long-term vision in preparing for the Winter Games.