14 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
SCORECARDIN THE FOUR YEARS since
the 2018 Olympics, the
Chinese government under
President Xi Jinping has tightened
its grip over Hong Kong, which
had previously maintained a large
measure of sovereignty under
Beijing’s “one country, two systems”
policy. Overwhelmingly peaceful
protests have been met with harsh
police crackdowns. Activists,
newspaper editors and pop stars
alike have been arrested on charges
of sedition under a sweeping
national security law implemented
in June ’20. Last year, the election
system was overhauled to require a
loyalty pledge from candidates.
Hong Kong is hardly the only
territory where the Chinese
government is documented to be
actively committing large-scale
human rights abuses, such as the
genocide of Uyghur and other
Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang
region and the torture of Tibetan
Buddhists. While the U.S. and other
nations have announced diplomatic
boycotts of the Games, the IOC
has doubled down on China,
even aiding its efforts to spin the
apparent silencing of Peng Shuai
after the women’s tennis star in
November described sexual assault
by a former party leader.
The Hong Kong delegation will
be tiny—just Chu and two skiers:
18-year-old Adrian Yung and
19-year-old Audrey King. None is
expected to reach the podium—
Hong Kong has never won a winter
medal—but that won’t stop the
spotlight from fixing on them. Norwill it stop viewers from projecting
meaning onto them—meanings that
will often contradict.
“Because of the incredible pressure
China is putting on the Hong Kong
democracy movement,” says
Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University
political scientist focused on the
politics of sports, “the mere presence
of someone from Hong Kong will be
a reminder of that grim repression.”
“They’re symbols of Hong Kong
spirit, of Hong Kong culture,”
says Mary Gallagher, a Michigan
political science professor who
studies Chinese politics. “It’s a good
thing for Hong Kong to be able to
preserve this separate identity with
the f lag, with a separate team.”
“Hong Kong has always been
able to send athletes on its own
terms [since 1952], so representation
alone, I don’t see any [meaning]
there,” says Lynette Ong, a political
science professor at the University of
Toronto focused on authoritarianism
in China. “Now, hypothetically
speaking, if those athletes go out to
make statements about Hong Kong
independence from Beijing, then
that’s a completely different story.”AS WITH CHU, it was the thrill
of speed that first attracted Yung
to his sport. “I was just a bit of a
crazy child,” says Yung, who was
born in Malaysia but lived in his
father’s native Hong Kong until
age 5, when his family moved to
England. “I’d just go down straight
and occasionally nearly hit an
unsuspecting adult.”
He proved just as fast a learner,
earning a spot on England’s under-
14 alpine national squad at 12.
Still, Yung never saw making the
Olympics as realistic—“I didn’t think
I was good enough”—until he was
recruited to Hong Kong’s team in- “It still feels like I’m stuck in a
dream,” he says over Zoom. “I never
thought I’d have such a special stage
to represent Hong Kong on.”
Also on the video call is the
chairman of the Hong Kong Ski
Association, Edmond Yue. When a
question touching on the political
situation comes up, Yue shakes his
head and interjects before Yung can
answer. “Politics, we try to keep that
out of the way,” he says. “It’s the
Olympics. It’s about the athletes.”
Eventually, Yung adds, “My job
RIGHTS UNDER FIRE
Hong Kong’s democracy
protests, like this one from
2019, have provoked a severe
response from the authorities.ST
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