Hong Kong must do more to help underprivileged kids play sport, badminton star Daniel Chan Ho-yuen urges
- Para-badminton athlete says broadened pool of talent may in turn help produce a new generation of elite athletes for the city
- ‘We like to dispel the idea sports activities are only for rich and middle-class families,’ Chan says of GDCD Association charity organisation
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Hong Kong badminton star Daniel Chan Ho-yuen insisted the city needs to do more to provide underprivileged children with opportunities to play sport.
The para-badminton athlete added that a broadened pool of talent may in turn produce a new generation of elite athletes for Hong Kong.
Speaking at the launch of the International Darts Festival – which kicked off at the AsiaWorld-Expo on Friday – Chan said there is so much more athletes can do to help promote sports in the community.
“Be it popularity, connections or networking, athletes can exert their influence,” said Chan, who will begin his quest of qualifying for the Paris Paralympics in February.
“I hope I can leverage my strengths and advantages to do more for the children from grassroots families.”
Echoing those sentiments was karate national athlete Lee Chun-ho, who is set to retire at the end of this month after failing to make the squad for the Asian Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which will be held from December 16 to 20.
The 31-year-old and Chan are among just a handful of athletes who have been devoting their time to the GDCD Association charity organisation which aims to help underprivileged children by providing sports training.
“By doing this, it may be possible to nurture a future elite athlete for Hong Kong,” Lee said.
Veteran fencer Cheung Siu-lun and a few other athletes across various sports including Wushu, triathlon and beach volleyball, are also involved in the project.
Chan, a Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist, said such work is “essential” as the kids will be able to experience how sport can change their lives – just as it did for him.
The 37-year-old became a national athlete in 2010, two years after losing his left leg in a traffic accident in China.
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“Most important of all, we hope to provide children from single-parent and low-income families the chance to play sports,” said Chan, who won the Outstanding Young Person Award in 2019.
“We also like to dispel the idea that sports activities are only for the rich and middle-class families. The organisation had been doing a lot of volunteer work to develop sports in the community.”
Chan, who is ranked world No 3 behind Japan’s Daiki Kajiwara and Korea’s Kim Jung-jun, said he and Lee will focus more on recruitment and publicity work as the faces of the charity organisation.
On the opening day of this weekend’s International Darts Festival, home hero Sun Wai-ting successfully defended her title in the women’s individual invitational tournament, winning HK$4,000 in prize money.
The 28-year-old snatched the first gold for Hong Kong by defeating Japan’s Yamada Ai in the final, while another local representative, Kwok Hoi-yan, and South Korea’s Kim Yun Ji finished joint third having reached the semi-finals.
In the men’s event, winner Mohd Nasir Bin Jantan and Tan Jenn Ming completed a Malaysian one-two on the podium, with local representative Royden Lam Ting-chi finishing third alongside England’s Adrian Gray.
