Coronavirus: Hong Kong skater sells designer masks online to make ends meet and keep 2022 Asian Games dream alive
- Katherine Choi Wing-yee has set up online stores on Facebook and Instagram to market her special, hand-drawn HKMasks amid closure of public facilities
- The 2019 China artistic roller skating champion is hoping to qualify for the 2022 Asian Games after missing out on the 2010 event
Katherine Choi Wing-yee remembers watching the artistic roller skating event at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, heartbroken she was not out there on the rink after the Hong Kong Olympic Committee said she failed to meet qualifying standards.
Choi, though, refuses to give up on her dream. Roller sports is set to return to the Asian Games fold in Hangzhou in 2022, but the 30-year-old is confronted by what seems to be insurmountable odds – she doesn’t have a coach, she is not part of any elite programme and, because of the coronavirus crisis, she has lost her sole source of income as a skating coach.
The 2019 China in-line figure skating champion is trying to make ends meet by selling face masks online, using the HKMask method created by local scientist and inventor Dr K Kwong to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Before this, I was making these HKMasks and giving it out to my friends,” said Choi, who would coach seven days a week and train alone whenever she had the chance. “My friends said I could sell them and earn some money, but that was two months ago and I was not thinking about profiting out of it. I still had a job and I didn’t need to make extra cash.
“But now, all the rinks are closed and I have nowhere to coach. This [selling masks] is the only way to help myself out,” said Choi, who lives with her parents near Victoria Park.