Scheme aims to capitalise on Hong Kong women’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics success to empower city’s youth

WISE HK rolls out coaching sessions, company visits and gender role discussions for city’s next generation

‘I was always really scared to go to a court or park because there are a lot of guys there’ says one student

Reading Time:4 minutes

WISE HK (Women In Sport Empowered Hong Kong) coach and footballer for MLFA, Cecily Radford, teaching students from the Integrated Brilliant Education Limited (IBEL) school in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP/ Dickson Lee

Published: 8:00am, 31 Aug 2021Updated: 2:09pm, 31 Aug 2021

With five of Hong Kong’s six Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games medals won by women, there may be no better time to engage the city’s next generation of female athletes.

That does not necessarily mean combing the districts for the next potential Olympian, nor imploring mandatory swimming or karate classes at every girls’ school to unearth the next Siobhan Haughey or Grace Lau Mo-sheung.

It means giving Hong Kong’s young women the necessary tools to thrive through sport, providing them a steady foundation for a future in the industry. And it has been a long time coming.

Enter WISE (Women In Sports Empowered) HK’s Sport Leaders Programme 2021, supported by gender equality and women’s rights group HER Fund. Concluding its most recent programme last weekend, the objective was to foster students’ leadership and communication skills as well as their confidence, from learning how to coach a basic touch rugby session and encouraging discussions of gender in sport.

Alicia Lui (left), founder of WISE HK, and coach Cecily Radford (centre), teaching students from the IBEL school at the Ming Tak Sports Ground in Tseung Kwan O in August. Photo: SCMP / Dickson Lee

“It’s helped me do more sports because before, I was always really scared to go to a court or park because there are a lot of guys there. It’s more fun here because I get to play with others and it helps to speak a bit more,” said Manyata Gurung, a student at ethnic minority-friendly educational centre Integrated Brilliant Education Limited (IBEL), after a coaching class at Hang Hau’s Ming Tak Sports Court – which itself claims to be “girls prioritised”.