WHO is Hong Kong's leading athlete at the moment? Is it rower Ho Kim-fai, who won the territory's only gold medal at the East Asian Games in Shanghai last May? Is it board-sailor Lee Lai-shan, who reached the top of her sport by winning the World Windsurfing Championship in Japan in September? Maybe it is martial arts expert Li Fai, who won two gold medals and a bronze at the second World Wushu Championships in Malaysia last month.
Or could it be either of the territory's China-born-and-bred world-class table tennis players - Chan Tan-lui or Chai Po-wa? A variety of sports and a variety of backgrounds for the athletes. What they have in common, of course, is that they are all female - and one of them will be crowned ''Coca-Cola'' Hong Kong Sports Star of the Year for 1993.
The previous two winners of the overall award were also both female - board-sailor Lee in 1991 and table tennis player Chai last year.
So why is it that all the territory's top performers are female? Where are the men when it comes to the highest level of sport? After a visit to the Hong Kong Sports Institute - the centre of excellence for Hong Kong's top athletes at Sha Tin - to listen to the views of athletes, coaches, administrators and members of the high-tech support team, there are two main reasons for the trend.
First, the female athletes themselves acknowledge that it is easier to reach the top in women's sport than it is in men's sport because the competition is not as strong.
Second, the traditional role of the Chinese male in society puts him under more pressure to support the family, especially in the late teens and early 20s - vital years for would-be champions.
While these two factors favour the females, it is also clear that the women go into major sports events better prepared than the men because they make more use of the back-up services available to them in the Institute's sports science and medicine department.