Hong Kong skater savoring 'dream' appearance

Hong Kong short-track speed skater Sidney K Chu considers competing at Beijing 2022 a dream come true and hopes to inspire more young people from the region to discover ice and snow sports.

"It's a great honor for me to stand on the Olympic stage to compete with world-class skaters. It's like a dream come true," Chu said after a training session at the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing on Wednesday.

"The Games are being held by my country and I hope to perform well here. I want to enjoy the competition here with my best form. If I can do that, I will be satisfied."

The 22-year-old is one of three Hong Kong athletes－and the only one across all the ice sports－competing at the Games, which opened on Friday. He will compete in the men's 500m event on Feb 13.

At the age of 5, Chu started playing ice hockey with his classmates from Canada. However, lacking the bulk for that tough team sport, he later turned his attention to short-track speed skating as a sport more suited to his skills.

"I happened to watch a video of a short-track competition on the internet, which I thought was really interesting, and later I attended a training class," said Chu, who began his short-track odyssey at the age of 11.

Four years later, he was selected by the Hong Kong team to train with coach Sun Dandan, who along with Yang Yang won a silver medal in the women's 3,000m relay at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

"My coach is a world champion and her story has encouraged me a lot," said Chu.

Since there is no short-track rink in Hong Kong, Chu had to train on the mainland－in Beijing and Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in Northeast China, which is the hometown of his coach and a traditional hotbed of short-track speed skating talent.

As well as the local expertise on the ice, the northeastern accent also rubbed off on Chu while speaking Mandarin in Changchun.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted Chu's training for about a year in 2020.

"Fortunately, I came back to the mainland for training last year and was given the Olympic ticket, which after training for such a short period of time, was something of a miracle," said Chu, who won 1,000m silver at the 2019 Asian Open Short-Track Trophy.

Although Chu is not considered a medal contender in Beijing, his coach insists the Games are an invaluable experience for him as he continues his development.

"Standing on the Olympic stage is in itself a victory," said Sun, whose career honors include a world championship relay title and a coveted World Cup gold. "I always tell him to skate relaxed because he is good enough."

For Chu, bringing the Olympic spirit back to Hong Kong is also important.

"I hope I can bring the Winter Olympics legacy and Olympic spirit back to Hong Kong to let more people there discover winter sports," he said.

"Promoting winter sports back in Hong Kong is also a responsibility of mine now."

Besides Chu, Audrey King and Adrian Yung Hau-tsuen will represent Hong Kong in Alpine skiing, with the three athletes making up the region's largest Winter Olympics delegation in its sixth straight Winter Games.