Debate speech (5C Chow Ka Hei)

Adjudicators, Principal, Teachers and fellow opponents,

I am against the motion “Hong Kong is a good place to nurture professional athletes”.

In recent years, Hong Kong has held several large-scale international sport competitions. And our athletes got good results in these competitions too. Thus, some people think that Hong Kong is a good place to nurture professional athletes. But I strongly believe that Hong Kong is not a good place to nurture professional athletes because Hong Kong does not have a sporting culture or enough support for athletes.

The Hong Kong education policies are one of the factors. The education system in Hong Kong is examination-oriented. Most of the Hongkongers, especially employers, will only focus on students’ academic results. Many of them think that sport is not important at all. Also, some parents will force their children to focus on academic results even if their children have talents in sports. Our education system ignores the talents of sports players and is unfavourable to sporting development.

Second, Hong Kong does not have enough resources or facilities to develop or nurture professional athletes. Hong Kong only has one organization – Hong Kong Sports Institute – to nurture athletes. Although HKSI provides many elite sports projects like badminton, gymnastics and swimming, they are not enough to provide a good environment for athletes to have comprehensive training. Hong Kong also lacks internationally recognized venues for training. We all know that it is not possible for HKSI to provide all venues and facilities for each type of sports. So, how can we nurture professional athletes successfully in such an inadequate environment?

Moreover, the sports atmosphere in Hong Kong is too weak. Hongkongers focus more on work and business. Not many people are willing to spend time to do sports or have sports training. Hong Kong emphasizes economic development but not sports development. Thus, the sports atmosphere in Hong Kong is not strong enough. Furthermore, the sports development in Hong Kong lacks government support. To obtain qualification to represent Hong Kong in international events, potential athletes have to rely on their own resources and training. This will increase the difficulty for athletes to build up their professionalism in sports.

Critics may argue that there are good and professional athletes, such as Wong Kam Po and Lee Wai Sze, in Hong Kong, and this proves that Hong Kong is a good place to nurture professional athletes. However, the Hong Kong cycling team is training in Guang Zhou and Shenzhen most of the time due to the venue problem – Hong Kong does not have a formal venue for cycling. And this shows that Hong Kong does not have enough resources, facilities or government support to nurture athletes. Therefore, I believe that Hong Kong is not a good place to nurture professional athletes.

To sum up, I strongly believe that Hong Kong is not a good place to nurture professional athletes. Unless the government and the authorities formulate a set of comprehensive and long-term sports development policies to build a perfect platform for our talented players and athletes, it will still be difficult for our players to become professional athletes.

Thank you.