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Unsurprisingly, the Winter Olympics has dominated the headlines this week, helped by a healthy dose of Eileen Gu-related news and the unfortunate row over a Ukrainian athlete’s helmet.
Not nearly as global as its summer cousin, the Games still capture the imagination, and in many ways it is the stories of the “other guys” as opposed to the stars that do so.
Hong Kong’s Eloise King is one such athlete. She won’t win a medal, is unlikely to even come close if truth be told, but she is an Olympian, and that in itself is something special.
The city has sent four competitors to Italy this time around – King, fellow skier Adrian Yung, and speedskaters Darren Kwok and Joey Lam – the largest delegation to a Winter Olympics so far. And that’s not bad for a place with a subtropical climate.
In many places winter sports remain the preserve of the affluent, or for those like Singapore’s Faiz Basha, who left his hometown at the age of three and learned to ski in Switzerland.
But if talent identification improves locally, then at least there are facilities across the border that would allow athletes the chance to become competitive, although China’s less than impressive performance so far raises questions about that.
It’s possible we’re seeing the recalibration of a 2022 Covid bump in the mainland squad’s performances. Three gold and three silver in the first week four years ago has given way to two silver and two bronze this time around.
Gu might still salvage some element of respectability if she can successfully defend the big air and halfpipe titles she won in Beijing, although Chinese fans have expressed fears that the country’s performance is more likely to mirror that of 2018, when Wu Dajing’s 500m short-track speedskating title was the only gold.
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| Josh Ball |
News Editor, Sport & Racing
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