A de O Sales was a controversial local sports figure who played strictly by the book

“We are not going on a picnic,” A de O Sales told the Hong Kong delegation just before they were about to embark on another Olympic Games adventure.

Those words would ring every time Hong Kong were about to take part in another Olympics as the then president of the Amateur Sports Federation & Olympic Committee mustered his troops at the flag presentation ceremony for the Games.

Sales, the elder statesman of Hong Kong sport who helped the city preserve its own identity after the handover, died on Friday at the age of 100. An eloquent speaker, Sales will be remembered for his many years of public service. But the spry Portuguese was never far away from controversy, angering officialdom through the years with his strict “play-by-the-rule-book” mindset – even when the sports world was undergoing an evolution by embracing professionalism en masse.

Sales hated the word “professional” and everything it represented and during his tenure as Olympics chief, he staunchly opposed those who thought otherwise. He stuck to his guns, even if it meant going against conventional wisdom. He peeved local sports figures who had to deal with his no nonsense manner. He did not care if professional players from the NBA were allowed to compete at the Olympics (first time in Barcelona 1992). “We are not Americans,” he once told reporters when asked whether Hong Kong would also embrace professionalism at the Olympics.

Sales was never able to conform to change even though the Olympics were no longer a showcase for amateur athletes, starting from the early 80s. Now professional athletes are allowed to compete in many sports such as basketball, cycling, tennis and golf. Sales wanted the Olympics to be strictly amateur and nothing else.