Beijing 2022: Malaysia-born, UK-bred Adrian Yung set to become Hong Kong’s first men’s alpine skier at Winter Olympics
- The 17-year-old, whose father is from Hong Kong, has reached the minimum standard required to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Games
- Hong Kong’s delegation to Beijing will feature three athletes, the largest ever, with a women’s skier and short track speed skater Sidney Chu also in the squad
Teenager Adrian Yung Hau-tsuen is set to become the first men’s skier to represent Hong Kong at the Winter Olympics after meeting the minimum standard to qualify for February’s Beijing 2022 Games.
With the deadline for qualification on January 16, the 17-year-old is the only Hong Kong men’s athlete who has fulfilled the requirements after calculating the average scores of his best five results in slalom and giant slalom events.
“I have never thought I could have the chance to go to the Olympics, it’s such a great honour representing Hong Kong in the 2022 Games in Beijing,” Yung, who is in Bosnia training and competing in preparation for the Games, said.
“I will not talk about any expectations as this is going to be my first Olympics. I will just give my 120 per cent for the opportunity of competing against the world’s best skiers.”
Last week, Yung finished 10th in the men’s slalom in an FIS (International Ski Federation) event in Jahorina where he scored 97.15 points. The minimum standard requires an average of under 160 points.
Slalom skiing is the shortest alpine event, involving skiing between poles or gates during which skiers need to perform fast turns and rapid changes of direction. Two rounds are held and the ranking is established by combining the times of both runs.
Yung was born in Malaysia to a Hong Kong father. He moved to the city for a short while before the family left for England in 2010. He started representing Hong Kong in 2017 when he competed in a series of events in Russia.