Opinion | Inside Incheon: Hong Kong Games leaders must accept that sports and politics do mix
HK delegation leaders try to avoid questions on pro-democracy rallies, ignoring Bach's calls
Our dear sporting leaders obviously missed the new thinking from IOC president Thomas Bach at the start of these Games when he said sports and politics do mix.
Here we had Pang Chung and Vivien Lau Chiang-chu, two old hands in the pantheon of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee, insisting the two don't when they were asked for their views on the pro-democracy movement.
At a press conference to extol the deeds of our athletes - many of whom are students themselves - Pang, secretary general of the Hong Kong Sports Federation and & Olympic Committee, said: "At this forum, we are not here to discuss politics just the competition."
He should have taken the bull by the horns and expressed his views, for or against. That is what the world's media had come to hear, not a pep talk on how good the Hong Kong athletes were.
Lau said: "It's a political thing. I don't think the athletes are very affected, it's not a natural disaster."
Wrong answer again, especially when some of the athletes said they were affected.