Hong Kong Olympian set for belated Hawaii Ironman World Championship debut at age of 60
Michael Tse rowed for the city at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and was formerly a coach at Hong Kong Institute of Sport
A veteran Hong Kong Olympian is poised to add another chapter to his sporting CV when he makes a belated Ironman World Championship debut in Hawaii on Saturday.
Michael Tse, formerly the strength and conditioning head coach at Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI), rowed for the city in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He is a two-times Asian Rowing Championships silver medallist and reached Asian Games finals in 1994 and 1998.
In his HKSI role, Tse worked with elite athletes from multiple sports and was part of Lee Lai Shan’s coaching team when the windsurfer was crowned Hong Kong’s first Olympic champion in Atlanta 28 years ago.
Tse, 60, qualified for Ironman’s blue-riband event in late 2019, only for Covid-19 to torch the 2020 race. He has had a four-year wait to cover a Kailua-Kona course considered the holy grail for triathletes.
Preparing for this third full Ironman, and with vast half-Ironman experience, Tse said he would be “more clever and strategic in my race plan” than in the past, when he would have attacked the 3.8-kilometre swim, 180km cycle and full 42.195km marathon “like a young bull”.
Tse squeezes between 12-to-15 hours of weekly training around an immersive job as head of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) Centre for Sports and Exercise and Active Health Clinic. The holder of a PhD in exercise science, Tse’s multiple additional commitments include serving as president of The Hong Kong Olympians Association and vice-president of the Hong Kong China Rowing Association. He is a Justice of the Peace and an honorary adviser to the city’s society for rehabilitation.
