Opinion | Inside Incheon: Shek Wai-hung's rags-to-riches tale is tailor-made for film
Gymnast's feel-good story of redemption would be a box office smash
They are taking a poll here in an effort to determine the best athlete at these Games. It is organised by that Korean company, which makes everything from cars to computers, and those eligible to vote are primarily the 9,500 members of the media in Incheon.
I decide to put my two cents in and walk up to vote. There is a list of candidates mostly made up of South Koreans, Chinese and the world record-breaking North Korean weightlifters.
Squash star Nicol David of Malaysia is one of the few athletes outside the pantheon of East Asian greats included in the list. But there is also an option for "other athlete". I go for this and pick Hong Kong gymnast Shek Wai-hung.
From humiliation and defeat, Shek had risen to the pinnacle of the sport in Asia winning Hong Kong its first gymnastics gold.
I know the gold medallist in the men's vault has absolutely no chance of winning, but a vote is a precious thing. So Shek it is.
If there was a Hong Kong MVP, it would be between Shek and cycling ace Sarah Lee Wai-sze who became the first local athlete to win two gold medals at the same Games. Perhaps in Hong Kong's best traditions of picking the Sports Star of the Year, where six athletes are chosen, we could have both, a His and a Her MVP, so Shek and Sarah are both recognised.
Yet, if it came to it, my choice would still be Shek simply because his is a rags-to-riches story of how an athlete who fell on his backside at his first Olympics, picked himself up and went on to beat the world and Olympic champion just two years later.
