Tokyo Olympics: why are there more female than male athletes from Hong Kong for the second Games in a row?
- The number of female qualifiers from the city has increased from 11 in 1984 to 26 this year, while there have been fewer male competitors over the same period
- Experts say this is due to gender equality programmes, participation rates and even economic concerns – and it may well continue
Our Tokyo Trail series looks at key issues and athletes in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics, which are scheduled for late July.
When it comes to representation of the sexes in Hong Kong sports, a look at the Olympics throws up an interesting statistic – for the second Games in a row, the city will be sending more women than men to compete.
There will be 26 female and 16 male Hongkongers seeking glory in Tokyo, with two men and two women as alternates, according to the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China. This is not a recent trend, however – the number of female Olympic qualifiers from the city has been on the rise since the 1984 Games, from 11 that year to 23 in 2016, while male qualifiers dropped from 36 to 15 over the same period.
As of July 3, Hong Kong had qualified for 22 women’s events and 12 men’s events in Tokyo, as well as three mixed events, according to the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Many of the medal hopes for this year’s Olympics are women, including the likes of cyclist Sarah Lee, swimmer Siobhan Haughey, karate exponent Grace Lau and fencer Vivian Kong.
Vivien Lau Chiang-chu, the vice-chairperson of the Sports Federation and Olympics Committee of Hong Kong, said the disparity in numbers could be the result of many factors, including participation rates in men’s and women’s events as well as athletes’ retirement periods, and did not necessarily mean that male athletes from the city were underperforming.
