Hong Kong, 9 August 2023: On this day in 1936, Jesse Owens claimed his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as part of the US 4x100m relay team, having already won the individual 100m, 200m and long jump. The prodigiously gifted African-American not only discredited the onlooking Adolf Hitler’s theories about the master race, he personified Olympic values. Owens retired thereafter, having inspired the next generation of athletes – in all sports – to go faster, higher and further. He passed the baton.
Hence, it is heartwarming to read about the exploits of Hong Kong’s competitors at the World University Games in Chengdu. On Monday, our star fencer Cheung Ka-long – Olympic champion, remember – added a second gold medal for himself as part of the winning quartet in the men’s team foil final. Hong Kong finished the Games with 12 medals, tripling their previous best total.
Some might argue such success should be expected, given the amount of public money being ploughed into high-level sport. The Elite Athletes Development Fund has swollen to HK$1 billion from its founding endowment of HK$200 million a decade ago, Hong Kong Sports Institute Chairman Tang King-shing has revealed. “We are committed to a science-based, athlete-centred approach as we train our elite athletes,” he assures us. The Hong Kong Jockey Club and government have also given HK$300 million to sports medicine research projects.
Facilities? The much-delayed Kai Tak Sports Park will open by the end of next year, confirms Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung. It is a mammoth project boasting a 50,000-seat main stadium with retractable roof, indoor sports centre with seating capacity of 10,000, ancillary sports hall, public sports ground, event village, multi-purpose activity zone, neighbourhood park, extensive dining options and numerous retail outlets. Oh, and a 40-lane tenpin bowling centre. It will be ready in time to co-host – with Macau and Guangdong Province – the National Games in 2025. There is hopeful talk we could bid again for the Asian Games (having lost to Doha for the 2006 edition).
So, all is well in sport? Not quite. Our government’s contentious decision to demolish part of Greater China’s oldest 18-hole golf course to make way for public housing has stirred debate over whether our city really wishes to be a major player on the sporting stage. In a hard-hitting opinion piece, South China Morning Post Sports News Editor Josh Ball highlights the lack of actual international events lined up for our high-tech Sports Park. Aside from the Hong Kong Sevens – the (only?) jewel in our sporting crown – and aforesaid National Games, there are no sporting competitions, concerts or any other plans for filling the “white elephant waiting-to-happen” stadium, he notes.
Into this unforgiving arena steps Sam Wong, former international windsurfer and husband to Lee Lai-shan, famously Hong Kong’s first-ever Olympic gold medallist (also in windsurfing). He has just been appointed Commissioner for Sports, with one of his briefs being to promote this city as a centre for major international sports events. He’ll need some wind in his sails. Sam’s first foray into sports administration some years ago involved ice hockey, a pastime rarely far from the headlines these days. After Anthemgate in February, the Hong Kong U18s men’s team are now starring in a viral video of a 30-man brawl following a feisty game against Thailand. Our unamused Sports Federation and Olympic Committee – clearly unfamiliar with the sport (Rodney Dangerfield: “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.”) – has asked ice hockey chiefs how they plan to prevent a repeat.
Someone more used to throwing verbal punches rather than physical ones – he’s described by the Chambers and Partners legal directory as “an iron fist in a velvet glove” – is Lord Ken Macdonald KC. One of the UK’s leading barristers and former Director of Public Prosecutions, he provides some fascinating insights as my latest guest on Law & More. Please listen.
Ken was made a Liberal Democrat life peer in the House of Lords in 2010 (he’s now a crossbencher) and, as such, shared the same political outlook as my father, Alan Cohen. Aside from running a successful wood veneer manufacturing business, being proactive in the B’nai B’rith charitable organisation, sitting as a magistrate, studying art history, and somehow finding time with my mother Gwen to raise three sons, Dad served as Liberal leader of Finchley Borough Council in the early 1960s and then 11 years as an Alderman in the London Borough of Barnet. His commitment to the community was admirable, as was his belief in fairness and equality.
As some of you know by now, his long and active life came to a close last week. I was grateful to spend precious time chatting with him before he passed, peacefully, in the company of Mum, myself and my brothers. A good man gone, a good life lived.
Back to the future, so to speak. Having returned to Hong Kong in time for grandson Nathan’s ninth birthday celebrations, I discovered the young man is objecting to his parents limiting time on his iPad. Nathan believes this is unfair and wants me to act for him. My father, I like to think, would allow himself a wry smile at this principled stand for justice. He passed the baton.
Until next time, everybody!
Colin Cohen
Senior Partner
Boase Cohen & Collins
