Paris Olympics: the refugee and the email that led to Hong Kong athlete’s historic place in Games
- The city’s first Olympic appearance in taekwondo came via an unusual route, but coach hails ‘the moment we have been waiting for’
- Swimmer Siobhan Haughey, fencer Cheung Ka-long and the rest of Hong Kong’s Paris athletes will be joined by Lo Wai-fung
Hong Kong will this summer have its first-ever Olympic taekwondo fighter, but Lo Wai-fung’s ticket to Paris arrived in anything but conventional fashion.
Having initially just missed out on a berth, it was a ruling over a refugee athlete’s eligibility that triggered an email informing Hong Kong that 21-year-old Lo had made it to France.
Lo’s stroke of fortune meant Hong Kong’s athlete delegation for the Games increased to 31, and it was greeted as a breakthrough by the city’s taekwondo coach Kelvin Wong Ka-wing.
“Since taekwondo was made an Olympic sport in 2000, this is the moment we have been waiting for,” Wong, head of the senior Kyorugi unit, said.
“This is definitely a milestone for us, because we never had such good results before. Even if we have not qualified for Paris outright, it’s a historic achievement for us.”
In March, Lo was denied by Ali Reza Abbasi in the men’s under-68kg semi-finals at the qualifying tournament in Taian, China, where the two highest-placed athletes per weight category per gender qualified for the Games.
