Opinion | Hong Kong doesn’t need to resort to superstition for its next Olympic medals, it has three of the world’s best heading to Tokyo

It is coming up on 23 years ago that windsurfer Lee Lai-shan swept her way into the history books by becoming Hong Kong’s first Olympic medallist. She did it in some style, too, by making that medal gold. We waited until Athens 2004 before Ko Lai-chak and Li Ching claimed the city’s second Olympic medal, winning table tennis doubles silver.

With Tokyo on the horizon, there are signs there for the superstitious to cling to: there were (a lucky) eight years between each of those medals and Tokyo 2020 will complete the next eight-year cycle; the sequence has gone gold-silver-bronze – is it, then, time to prepare the garland for Hong Kong’s second gold medallist?

Or how about that each previous Olympic medal triumph has involved a Lee/Li? OK, that one’s a bit of a stretch.

We could cling to the serendipitous circumstances surrounding previous Olympic glories and will another medal to the city, or we could simply look at the facts: Hong Kong, for perhaps the first time ever, has three bona-fide, world-class Olympic medal prospects bound for Tokyo next August.

As we bear down on the 2020 Games, the Hong Kong public might be forgiven for – dare I say it – actually expecting an Olympic medal.