Hong Kong at the Olympics facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Hong Kong at the Olympics
Hong Kong SAR
IOC code	HKG
NOC	Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China
Website
Medals Ranked 77th	Gold Silver Bronze Total 4 3 6 13
Summer appearances
1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winter appearances
2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

Hong Kong first competed at the Olympic Games in 1952. It competed as a British colony until 1996. After the territory's handover in 1997, it has competed since 2000 as "Hong Kong, China" with its status as a special administrative region (SAR) of China. Throughout its history, Hong Kong has participated in every Summer Olympic Games since 1952, except in 1980 in support of the United States' boycott, and in every Winter Olympic Games since 2002.

Hong Kong won its first medal and first gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, its second gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and its third and fourth gold medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics. It has also won eight other medals: three silvers and six bronzes. Its best performance to date (by number of gold medals) was in 2024, where it won two gold and two bronze medals.

History

The first Olympic athlete from Hong Kong was Yvonne Yeung, who competed in 1936 for the Republic of China (ROC) instead of British Hong Kong. The ROC, today mostly limited to Taiwan and a bunch of smaller islands, currently competes as Chinese Taipei. The National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Hong Kong was founded in 1950 as the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, and is now known as the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China. It was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1951, and subsequently, Hong Kong began to be represented separately from Great Britain (for any gold medal ceremony, the colonial flag of Hong Kong was raised and the British national anthem was played).

After Hong Kong was handed over to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, the NOC for the new special administrative region (SAR) of China has since been known as "Hong Kong, China". Hong Kong maintains its own NOC and is represented separately from mainland China at the Olympics. This is understood to be a grandfathered policy though there is no written documentation evidencing this explanation. In contrast, while Macau also has its own NOC, it is not recognised by the IOC and can only compete separately from mainland China in regional games like the Asian Games.

For any gold medal ceremony, the Hong Kong SAR flag is raised and the PRC national anthem is played, even in situations where athletes from China win silver or bronze, resulting in the Hong Kong SAR flag flying above that of China. This is nevertheless permitted under the constitution promulgated by the PRC prior to the handover (specifically, Article 151, Chapter 7 of the Basic Law), which states that Hong Kong "may, on its own, [...] maintain and develop relations and conclude and implement agreements with foreign states and regions and relevant international organizations in the appropriate fields, including the economic, trade, financial and monetary, shipping, communications, tourism, cultural and sports fields".

In 2008, Hong Kong was the site of the equestrian venues for the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Medals by Games

Medals by Summer Games Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank as  British Hong Kong 1952 Helsinki 4 0 0 0 0 - 1956 Melbourne 2 0 0 0 0 - 1960 Rome 4 0 0 0 0 - 1964 Tokyo 39 0 0 0 0 - 1968 Mexico City 11 0 0 0 0 - 1972 Munich 10 0 0 0 0 - 1976 Montreal 25 0 0 0 0 - 1980 Moscow did not participate 1984 Los Angeles 47 0 0 0 0 - 1988 Seoul 48 0 0 0 0 - 1992 Barcelona 38 0 0 0 0 - 1996 Atlanta 23 1 0 0 1 49 as  Hong Kong 2000 Sydney 31 0 0 0 0 - 2004 Athens 32 0 1 0 1 65 2008 Beijing 34 0 0 0 0 - 2012 London 42 0 0 1 1 79 2016 Rio de Janeiro 37 0 0 0 0 - 2020 Tokyo 46 1 2 3 6 49 2024 Paris 36 2 0 2 4 37 2028 Los Angeles future event Total 4 3 6 13 77

Medals by Winter Games Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank 2002 Salt Lake City 2 0 0 0 0 – 2006 Turin 1 0 0 0 0 – 2010 Vancouver 1 0 0 0 0 – 2014 Sochi 1 0 0 0 0 – 2018 Pyeongchang 1 0 0 0 0 – 2022 Beijing 3 0 0 0 0 – 2026 Milan/Cortina future event Total 0 0 0 0 -

Medals by sport

List of medallists

Medal	Name	Games	Sport	Event
1 Gold	Lee Lai-shan	1996 Atlanta	Sailing	Women's sailboard (Mistral)
2 Silver	Ko Lai-chak Li Ching	2004 Athens	Table tennis	Men's doubles
3 Bronze	Lee Wai-sze	2012 London	Cycling	Women's keirin
1 Gold	Cheung Ka-long	2020 Tokyo	Fencing	Men's foil
2 Silver	rowspan="2" | Siobhán Haughey		Swimming	Women's 200 metre freestyle
2 Silver	Women's 100 metre freestyle
3 Bronze	Doo Hoi-kem Lee Ho-ching Minnie Soo Wai-yam		Table tennis	Women's team
3 Bronze	Grace Lau		Karate	Women's kata
3 Bronze	Lee Wai-sze		Cycling	Women's Sprint
1 Gold	Vivian Kong	2024 Paris	Fencing	Women's épée
1 Gold	Cheung Ka-long		Fencing	Men's foil
3 Bronze	Siobhán Haughey		Swimming	Women's 200 metre freestyle
3 Bronze				Women's 100 metre freestyle

Multiple medallists

Athlete	Sport	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Siobhán Haughey	Swimming	2020, 2024	0	2	2	4
Cheung Ka-long	Fencing	2020, 2024	2	0	0	2
Lee Wai-sze	Cycling	2012, 2020	0	0	2	2

National Olympic Committee

The National Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, SF&OC, has been repeatedly warned by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) against corruption and to implement better governance. With Timothy Fok as president of the Olympic committee, there have numerous allegations of misconduct against the SF&OC and Fok. In August 2016, the Hong Kong Economic Journal released an article accusing the SF&OC and Fok of various transgressions. In April 2020, the government's Audit Commission released a 141-page report after investigating the Olympic committee, describing various failures with the SF&OC, including lax governance. An editorial published by the South China Morning Post agreed with the Audit Commission and stating that the city's sports development was at risk.

Athlete training

The Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) is a government-funded training center for elite athletes and potential Olympians in Hong Kong. It has been criticised for its decision to primarily fund 20 tier-A sports, including those not included in the Olympics and those which "may not even be able to achieve any breakthrough in the coming years", in turn neglecting support for other sport categories. After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where Hong Kong obtained its best Olympics result with six medals, Chung Pak-kwong – former chief executive of HKSI and a sports professor at Baptist University – claimed that Hong Kong's achievements at the Olympics had been disproportionate to the amount of resources invested. Chung suggested that the territory's sports developments should have translated to medals earlier, at the 2016 Summer Olympics (where it instead obtained zero medals). In one South China Morning Post article, an anonymous senior sports official suggested that Hong Kong adopt a more "medal-oriented strategy", recommending that more support be put towards sports that Asians have traditionally performed well in – such as archery or those with weight categories like judo – where "Asians are not at a disadvantage to stronger, bigger Westerners".

Naming

Prior to 1997, the team's name was "Hong Kong"; after 1997, the team's name became "Hong Kong, China". In most other languages, this name is used for translation (e.g. French: Hong Kong, Chine; Russian: Гонконг, Китай Gonkong, Kitay; Simplified Chinese: Chinese: 中国香港; pinyin: Zhōngguó Xiānggǎng). The Japanese team name is Honkon Chaina (ホンコン・チャイナ) and the Korean team name is Hongkong Chaina (홍콩차이나), using English transliterations of the word "China" instead of the native translation.

See also

In Spanish: Hong Kong en los Juegos Olímpicos para niños

• List of flag bearers for Hong Kong at the Olympics
• Category:Olympic competitors for Hong Kong
• Hong Kong at the Paralympics
• Hong Kong at the Asian Games
• Hong Kong at the Commonwealth Games
• Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics