Paris Olympics: who has won Games medals for Hong Kong, and where are they now?
- As Team Hong Kong prepare to improve on their historic showing at the Tokyo Games, we look back on every winner in the island’s history
Team Hong Kong returned home from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 with a historic haul of six medals, marking the city’s most triumphant performance in a Games in 69 years of competing.
Hong Kong first took part at the Olympic Games in 1952, when it was a British colony. Hopes were often usually restrained for the performances of the city’s athletes. However, that all changed in 1996 when windsurfer Lee Lai-shan won gold in Atlanta.
Twenty-five years later in Tokyo, fencer Cheung Ka-long wrote his name into the record books by winning the team’s first gold in fencing. A title he will defend in Paris next week.
Swimmer Siobhan Haughey took silver in the 100m and 200m freestyle, while there were bronze medals for the women’s table tennis team, kata exponent Grace Lau Mo-sheung and cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze.
As the hours tick down to the start of the Paris Olympics, we take a look at the groundbreaking achievements of Hong Kong’s best – who are they, what did they accomplish, and where are they now?
Lee Lai-shan
Being stung by a bluebottle jellyfish before the start of the opening race was not a good omen for a windsurfing medal candidate competing at the Olympics.