Hong Kong officials say weak-minded athletes not poor coaching to blame for gymnastics woes
The Gymnastics Association of Hong Kong has struggled to consistently produce competitive athletes
Hong Kong officials have blamed weak-minded athletes and a lack of proper facilities for the failure to produce more elite gymnasts, rather than there being inadequate training or poor coaching in the city.
Much like their counterparts in athletics, the Gymnastics Association of Hong Kong has struggled to consistently produce competitive athletes, and has had to rely on the relative success of Angel Wong Hiu-ying or Stone Shek Wai-hung over the past decade and more.
Like with other sports, the association takes in significant public funding every year. It received HK$11,691,000 (US$1.5 million) in 2023-24 from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, of which 80.5 per cent was spent on training, development plans and staff costs.
In previous years, the association received HK$10,761,000 (2022-23), HK$8,624,000 (2021-22), HK$6,808,000 (2020-21) and HK$6,618,000 (2019-20).
An additional HK$11.6 million has been set aside to pay 45 gymnasts, including 36 juniors, under the Elite Athletes Development Fund in 2024-25, the same as in the previous year.
Those juniors have yet to set the world alight, while the city’s seemingly best hope for further success regionally or globally, appears to lie with 16-year-old Amber Ward, who was trained in Australia, but has opted to represent Hong Kong and is one of those being funded.
