James Porteous

Column | If Hong Kong Olympic hero Sarah Lee Wai-sze really wants to quit, then let her do so with the dignity she deserves rather than amid petty squabbling

Cycling star can’t receive the support of a full-time athlete if she is not prepared to put in the miles, but sport’s authorities also should not alienate the London 2012 hero

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Lee Wai-sze bites her bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012. Photo: SCMP

James Porteous

Published: 4:20pm, 29 Sep 2017Updated: 9:12pm, 30 Sep 2017

At the Rio Velodrome, a stunned silence engulfed the Hong Kong sports hacks as Sarah Lee Wai-sze crashed to the track, ending her strong hopes of improving on the bronze medal she had won in the keirin four years previously.

As she spoke to journalists, one broke down in tears – “Stop it or you’ll get me going too,” said Lee, choking up.

The tears were a reflection of what reporter and cyclist both knew – that the best chance of only a fourth-ever Hong Kong Olympic medal was gone, and who knows how long it would be before another came along.

Sarah Lee Wai-sze falls during the keirin at Rio 2016, realistically her last chance of an Olympic medal. Photo: AP

Hong Kong cycling coach Shen Jinkang insisted as recently as June that “as the 2020 Olympic Games [approach], I believe Lee Wai-sze can win a gold,” but he surely believed otherwise.

Lee will be 33 then and Olympic track cycling is ever more a young person’s game. The average age of Olympic medallists in both of Lee’s events (six keirin, 24 sprint) is 25 – the age she was in London. Only five of those 30 medallists were 30 or over, and the average is trending down.