Hong Kong Olympian Sarah Lee Wai-sze, who won the bronze medal for women’s bicycle sprint on Sunday and brought Hong Kong’s medal total up to six, declined a congratulatory phone call from Hong Kong’s Beijing-controlled chief executive Carrie Lam while in the middle of a live television interview.
As Coconuts Hong Kong pointed out on Monday, Lee was juggling a hectic media schedule on Sunday after her bronze medal win, and might not have known who was on the other end of the call she refused while giving an interview to Hong Kong Open TV.
Hongkongers nevertheless found great humor in the incident, which quickly accumulated over 75,000 views when the video was uploaded to YouTube. The video captures Lee making an exasperated sigh of “aiya,” turning around to reject Lam’s call, and then telling her TV interviewers to continue:
Lam was able to get through to Lee on a video call later on Sunday. At one point Lam patronizingly said that even though she only took the bronze medal in her event, she was still the number one big winner in Lam’s estimation because she bested star German cyclist Emma Hinze.
“Don’t comfort me,” was Lee’s terse reply.
Lam issued a statement on Monday praising Lee and her fellow medalists for bringing home Hong Kong’s best collection of Olympic gold, silver, and bronze to date, as reported by RTHK:
Lam said in a statement that the athletes had displayed the “extraordinary capability of Hong Kong” by achieving the city’s best results in history”.
“We are moved by the courage and perseverance of all the athletes in competitions, with a number of them breaking Hong Kong records or their own records,” she said.
“Hong Kong athletes’ performances have made Hong Kong people feel proud,” she said, noting that the public had cheered athletes “no matter whether they were at home, at work, in the malls or even on the streets, giving athletes spiritual support.”
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) threw some cold water on Lam’s triumphalism in a lengthy Olympic postmortem on Monday, citing numerous reasons to believe the six medals Hong Kong won in Tokyo might be a “flash in the pan.”
The SCMP noted that one of Hong Kong’s bronze medals was in karate, which will not be included in the next Summer Games, while 34-year-old Lee might not compete again, and freestyle swimming sensation Siobhan “Little Flying Fish” Haughey looks like a once-in-a-century talent who completed much of her training in the United States.
Skeptical analysts told the SCMP that Hong Kong’s success in several sports came very slowly despite billions of dollars invested in training over the past fifteen years. The increased funding has been largely devoted to proven stars who score well in local and international competitions, leaving little money to develop “second-tier” athletes who could become breakout performers or make strong contributions to team sports.
Hong Kong coaches noted that parents are often nervous about students focusing on athletics instead of academics, so promising young competitors often drop out of the intensive programs that could produce Olympic competitors. They suggested focusing the city’s recruiting and training efforts on sports with the highest probable return on investment.
“If we look at the sports won by our Asian counterparts in the Tokyo Games – such as shooting, archery or those with a weight category such as judo, weightlifting, karate or taekwondo – these are sports in which Asians are not at a disadvantage to stronger, bigger Westerners,” an unnamed senior sports official complained. “However, it is very difficult for athletes from these sports to get Tier-A support from the sports institute.”
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