Paris Olympics: how Michael Jordan’s US Dream Team gave Hong Kong coach Games to remember
- City’s cycling head coach was at the 1992 Olympics as an athlete when he met the basketball legends at the Barcelona Games
Herve Dagorne has told Hong Kong’s cyclists to embrace the full Olympic experience, after revealing how he repeatedly rubbed shoulders with basketball legend Michael Jordan at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Head coach Dagorne, who was desperately close to a medal in Seoul four years earlier, has substantial Olympic pedigree.
He coached Bryan Coquard to 2012 omnium silver, while in charge of the track cycling team for his native France. In that role, Dagorne was a consultant on the planning and construction of the Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines Velodrome that will be used for this summer’s track events.
Given his competitive history, Dagorne, who was appointed in March, acknowledged it was tough to accept leading a Hong Kong team with no realistic medal hopes this summer.
“I would prefer to say we will compete for medals, but unfortunately [we will] not,” he said. Dagorne nevertheless believed the city’s two riders, Vincent Lau Wan-yau and Ceci Lee Sze-wing, whose medal ambitions belong in Los Angeles in 2028, would draw valuable experience from the Games.
“This week, Ceci was concerned about how she will do,” Dagorne said. “I told her, ‘it is the Olympics, you will forever be an Olympian’. It means something.
