Paris Olympics: Hong Kong delegation will get ‘any assistance’ it needs for Games
- Sports minister Kevin Yeung tours Olympic Village and says city is ‘proud of its athletes’
The lawmaker in charge of sport in Hong Kong has pledged to provide “any assistance” the city’s Olympic delegation needs in Paris, but warned that athletes and officials could be judged on their performances at the Games.
While Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung stopped short of suggesting there would be financial penalties for poor results, he reiterated the government stance that the city’s national sports associations were being asked to “continually improve their governance”.
Yeung, who arrived in Paris on Thursday, made his comments one week after Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, said sports authorities’ use of “significant amounts” of taxpayer money was under the microscope.
Hong Kong has a 35-athlete delegation in Paris for the Games, which get under way on Saturday, 11 fewer than the 46 who represented the city in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
The sports minister, though, believed that was a “handsome number of athletes competing in an Olympic Games”.
“We are a city of 7 million people, it is a very good achievement for us,” he told reporters after a tour of the Olympic Village. “We are proud of our athletes and providing full support to them.”
