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Josh Ball

Hong Kong’s speed skaters have tended to follow their own paths when it comes to high-profile competitions, which made this month’s Asian Winter Games something of an outlier.
When Sidney Chu carried the city’s flag at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, he was the sole exponent of his craft and one of just three Hong Kong athletes taking part, alongside alpine skiers Adrian Yung and Audrey King.
It was the largest delegation the city had ever sent to the winter multi-sport event.
Often outnumbered by officials, coaches and other non-competing members of the delegation, the city’s short-track speed skaters were the first to represent Hong Kong at a Winter Olympics, when Cordia Tsoi and Christy Ren did so in 2002 in Salt Lake.
They were followed by Han Yueshuang in 2006 and Barton Lui Pan-to eight years later, but it has primarily been a solitary existence, and this is what has made the past week in Harbin so special, especially for Chu, who at 25 has represented Hong Kong for the past 10 years.

This month, though, he has been one of six competing in the sport’s two disciplines, and Hong Kong also had – for the first time – enough speed skaters for two team relay events. And when Lam Ching-yan held the city’s flag aloft last week, 73 athletes followed.
“We have so much camaraderie and so much support, and I’m super-proud of that,” Chu said. “And it’s great to see the younger generation in speed skating. This is definitely a breakthrough.”
Lam reached the B final in both the women’s 500 metres and 1,500 metres. Already hailed by chef de mission Kenneth Fok Kai-kong as representing the next generation, Lam was praised even more effusively by Chu.
“She’s an absolute superstar,” Chu said. “And she’s somebody who we’ve been really pushing to improve for a long time.
“I don’t consider my athletic career to be totally over, but the thing I want to see the most is the younger generation stepping onto the podium one day, and getting that spotlight.”

Being alone in Beijing was the final straw for Chu, who said while development of the sport had often been discussed in Hong Kong, nothing substantial ever materialised, until the momentum created by his viral appearance in the Chinese capital.
A darling of the country’s social media, his fluency in a northeastern Chinese dialect not commonly spoken in Hong Kong made him a sensation.
From being limited to a single hour-long practice per week at Festival Walk Glacier in Kowloon Tong, and “no dry land, no nothing” else, the development of new facilities in Lohas Park and Discovery Bay, and his own Hong Kong Speed Skating Academy, has changed things.
“When I picked up the sport in Hong Kong, I had only 20 teammates. Now the number has hit 200,” Chu said. “Beijing 2022 gave us a window into the world of winter sports, and I want to keep that momentum going.
“I would happily have one of my own students beat me, like, in the near future.”
Which is not to say that Chu is ready to hang up his skates, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are less than a year away and he is not writing off another Games, although he would be “equally happy and equally proud” if one of his teammates took the spot.

Despite the challenges of developing winter sports in a city without natural ice or a strong tradition in skating, Chu remains optimistic.
“I think there’s so much more potential of the younger athletes – there isn’t that much of a ceiling,” he said.
Looking ahead, Chu, who is also pursuing a PhD in chemical pathology, knows there may be a time when he steps away from competitive skating. But when that day comes, he hopes the next generation will take Hong Kong’s ice sports to even greater heights.
“If I don’t get to fly high enough, I hope the next generation will,” he said. “Maybe in four or eight years, a Hong Kong skater will stand on an Olympic podium.”


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2025 Asian Winter Games

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Sidney Chu hopes to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina. Photo: Handout

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Sport

Hong Kong

The only skater at the 2022 Winter Olympics has seen the city team grow to being able to field two speed skating relay teams in Harbin


The only skater at the 2022 Winter Olympics has seen the city team grow to being able to field two speed skating relay teams in Harbin.


Asian Winter Games: speed skater Sidney Chu hails ‘breakthrough’ for Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The only skater at the 2022 Winter Olympics has seen the city team grow to being able to field two speed skating relay teams in Harbin

The only skater at the 2022 Winter Olympics has seen the city team grow to being able to field two speed skating relay teams in Harbin