All The Hong Kong Athletes Participating In The Paris Olympics 2024

We are just days away from the Paris Olympics 2024, and excitement around the grandest Sports meet is nearing its crescendo. As is the case with every participating nation, people in Hong Kong are pinning high hopes on their athletes for the Olympics. And why shouldn’t they? After all, they had a record medal haul three years back.

A veteran at the Olympics, Hong Kong made its debut appearance in 1952. They have participated in all but one edition of the sports gala ever since (in 1980). What was the reason for them to skip the 1980 Olympic Games?

As part of a protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the United States of America (USA) boycotted the 1980 Olympics that had Russia as its host. Hong Kong and a number of nations joined the USA in withdrawing from the marquee Sports event.

In a History of over 70 years at the Olympic Games, how has the Southeast Asian region fared? And which Hong Kong athletes have earned their qualification at the Paris Olympics 2024? We try to answer these questions, in addition to spotting the top contenders who can end up on the podium.

A sneak peek into Hong Kong’s record at the Olympic Games

Even though Hong Kong participated in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1952, it had citizens in the sports meet before that. In fact, swimmer Yvonne Yeung was the first athlete from Hong Kong to partake in the Olympic Games (in 1936). Yeung represented the Republic of China, which is now known as Chinese Taipei.

Since 1952, Hong Kong has participated in 17 Summer Olympic Games to date. In addition, it also has six Winter Olympic Games appearances (every edition since 2002).

Lee Lai Shan became the first athlete to win an Olympic medal representing Hong Kong when she clinched the gold medal in the women’s sailboard event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

On the other hand, former track cyclist Lee Wai-sze and swimmer Siobhán Haughey remain the most successful Hong Kong athletes in the Olympics’ history with two medals each. While Wai-sze won bronze medals in 2012 and 2021, Haughey won two silver medals in Tokyo in 2021.

So far, Hong Kong has won a total of nine medals — two gold, three silver and four bronze — at the Olympic Games.

Here are the athletes who will represent Hong Kong at the Paris Olympics 2024

In 2021, Hong Kong sent a contingent of 46 athletes to Tokyo, one of its largest in history. This year, we see a contrasting image as 36 athletes from the Southeast Asian region have been confirmed to head to Paris (as of July 2024). It is Hong Kong’s smallest contingent since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A large contingent, however, is no guarantee of a good performance. The chances of Hong Kong winning multiple medals at the Paris Olympics 2024 look promising through the following athletes:

Athletics

Felix Diu (men’s 100 metres)

Badminton

Lee Chiuk Yiu (men’s singles)

Lo Sin Yan (women’s singles)

Tang Chun Man (mixed doubles)

Tse Ying Suet (mixed doubles)

Yeung Nga Ting (women’s doubles)

Yeung Pui Lam (women’s doubles)

Cycling

Lau Wan Yau (men’s road race)

Lee Sze Wing (women’s road race, women’s omnium)

Fencing

Cheung Ka Long (men’s foil)

Daphne Chan (women’s foil)

Ho Wai Hang (men’s épée)

Vivian Kong (women’s épée)

Gymnastics

Shek Wai Hung (men’s vault)

Judo

Wong Ka Lee (women’s 48 kilograms)

Rowing

Chiu Hin Chun (men’s single sculls)

Sailing

Akira Sakai (men’s 49er)

Cheng Chin Yin (men’s IQFoil)

Ma Kwan Ching (women’s IQFoil)

Nicholas Halliday (men’s ILCA7)

Russell Alysworth (men’s 49er)

Swimming

Camille Cheng (women’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay, women’s 4×100 metres medley relay)

Cindy Cheung (women’s 200 metres backstroke)

Ian Ho (men’s 50 metres freestyle)

Natalie Kan (women’s 4×100 metres medley relay)

Siobhán Haughey (women’s 50 metres freestyle, women’s 100 metres freestyle, women’s 200 metres freestyle, women’s 400 metres freestyle, women’s 100 metres breaststroke, women’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay, women’s 4×100 metres medley relay)

Stephanie Au (women’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay, women’s 4×100 metres medley relay)

Tam Hoi Lam (women’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay)

Table Tennis

Doo Hoi Kem (women’s singles, women’s team, mixed doubles)

Lee Ho Ching (women’s team)

Wong Chun Ting (men’s singles, mixed doubles)

Zu Chengzhu (women’s singles, women’s team)

Taekwondo

Lo Wai Fung (men’s 68 kilograms)

Triathlon

Jason Ng Tai Long (men’s triathlon)

Which Hong Kong athletes are most likely to win medals at the Summer Olympics 2024?

According to its schedule, the Paris Olympics 2024 will be hosted by over 30 venues across the city from 25 July to 11 August. These athletes from Hong Kong stand the best chance of winning medals in the marquee sports meet:

Cheung Ka Long

Sport: Fencing

Kick-starting our list of prospective medal-winning Hong Kong athletes is Cheung Ka Long. The left-handed foil fencer is the defending Olympic champion and holds Hong Kong’s best chance at securing a gold medal.

The 27-year-old fencing champion has an illustrated portfolio with as many as 30 medals at senior-level international events. Besides the Olympics, he is the current Asian Games champion, having won the individual event in 2023.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Long scripted history by becoming the first Hong Kong athlete to win a gold medal in fencing. Additionally, it was the Southeast Asian region’s second-ever gold medal in the history of the marquee quadrennial sports meet.

While Long and the rest of Hong Kong will be hoping for a second successive gold medal, a realistic aim for the athlete should be to secure a podium finish at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Siobhán Haughey

Sport: Swimming

Arguably one of the finest athletes Hong Kong has ever produced, Siobhán Haughey will be shouldering the hopes of over seven million people at the Paris Olympics 2024. Alongside Cheung Ka Long, the swimmer holds the best chance for Hong Kong to clinch a medal in Paris this year.

Haughey created the record for being the most successful Hong Kong athlete in a single edition of the Olympic Games when she won two silver medals in Tokyo in 2021 (women’s 100-metre freestyle and women’s 200-metre freestyle). In the process, she also became the joint-most successful athlete at the Olympics hailing from Hong Kong.

Participating in as many as seven swimming events in 2024, Haughey will surely be aiming to win more medals than in 2021. The Hong Kong-based swimmer has already won the Southeast Asian region’s first-ever gold at the Asian Games in 2023. Can she repeat that form at the Olympics? Only time will tell.

Doo Hoi Kem

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Hoi Kem Doo (@hoikem)

Sport: Table tennis

One of the finest table tennis players Hong Kong has ever seen, Doo Hoi Kem heads to the Paris Olympics 2024 as an experienced campaigner.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, her journey was cut short by Germany in the quarter-finals of the team event. However, she along with her compatriots was able to exact revenge on the Germans to clinch the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. This time, Kem will be hoping to better her performance and reach the finals.

Besides the Olympic Games, Kem has also won six bronze medals at the World Championships, one silver medal and seven bronze medals at the Asian Championships and a solitary bronze medal at the Asian Games. She is a two-time recipient of the Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards (in 2015 and 2017).

Lee Ho Ching

Sport: Table tennis

Summing up the list of the potential medal-winning Hong Kong athletes at the Paris Olympics 2024 is Lee Ho Ching. The 31-year-old was a part of the women’s table tennis team that won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years back by defeating Germany.

In Paris a few days later, Ching will reunite with her Olympic bronze medal-winning partner Doo Hoi Kem. However, they will be joined by compatriot Zu Chengzhu instead of Minnie Soo Wai Yam. Ching will be hoping to end up on the podium once again and add to Hong Kong’s medals tally.

(Main Image Credits: SIOBHÁN HAUGHEY (何詩蓓)/Instagram and Cheung Ka Long 張家朗/Instagram; Featured Image Credits: SIOBHÁN HAUGHEY (何詩蓓)/Instagram)

This story first appeared on Augustman Hong Kong