Hong Kong women’s ice hockey team urges city not to cut funds for sport over national anthem blunder
- Athlete Chloe Chan says ‘long-term impact’ of possible funding cuts ‘hard to tell’; asks officials to consider alternatives to improve team’s sports organisation
- Team returns to Hong Kong after Monday’s historic win in Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division III in Romania
The Hong Kong women’s ice hockey team has urged authorities not to slash funding for the sport amid a row over a national anthem blunder involving the men’s side, as the athletes said their spirits were high following their historic win.
Five of the 20-strong team on Tuesday afternoon were welcomed home by family members and the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association, a day after the athletes were crowned champions of their division at an international event for the first time.
Athlete Chloe Chan Pui-wing said the team was in good spirits despite a mix-up in February that lead to the playing of a 2019 anti-government song instead of the country’s anthem after the men’s side beat Iran at the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship’s third division in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We do our best in every match and showcase our training results. We haven’t joined any competition in the past three years due to Covid-19 and we don’t think this incident has affected us,” she said.
But Chan said she was worried by the prospect that authorities would cut the association’s funding over the incident.
“Losing funding could affect our development. It is hard to tell the long-term impacts at the moment. We will have to wait for the discussion between the government and the association,” she added.
“I hope the government can consider a more effective improvement plan instead of cutting the funding. We should not harm the interests of athletes in any way.”
The rest of the women’s team will return to the city on Tuesday night.
The athletes made history on Monday when they were crowned division champions at the Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division III in Romania, earning a promotion to Division IIB for next year’s event.
Team captain Adrienne Li said she was heartened by their first victory at the overseas competition, adding that her teammates were determined and focused on winning.
“As a team, we have to play hard regardless of what’s happening outside. We have all trained hard for the last 10 years,” Li said. “We basically focus on our game both mentally and physically. We can’t afford to make mistakes on the ice.”
Meanwhile, Chan said she hoped authorities would allocate more funding to female players in the future and continue with their five-year development plan for team sports, which was introduced in 2018 and also covered seven other categories.
Annie Kwan Yuen-yee, the association’s general secretary, who oversees both the men’s and women’s teams, said she was “very proud” of all the athletes’ achievements, adding that 2023 had been the hardest year in her decade as team leader.
Kwan, who was earlier embroiled in February’s anthem blunder, said: “We hope the management will be responsible for any of the ice hockey association’s inadequacies. We do not want this to affect the athletes.”
Association chairman Kan Yeung-kit called for things to “cool down” after the recent mix-up, but said those responsible for the incident should be punished.
“If someone has made a mistake, it is right they are penalised,” he said, adding that the saga was placing more stress on the city’s athletes.
After the team’s historic win, Kwan on Monday revealed the team had prevented a similar blunder from occurring before the match, after they discovered a copy of the anthem submitted to organisers was not passed to the person in charge of playing the music.
Tensions between the association and the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China flared last Tuesday after the top body said it had started the process of suspending the former’s membership.
The federation also accused the group of displaying an “unwillingness and evasiveness” to come to terms with February’s incident, saying it was unclear whether the men’s team had given a copy of the anthem to event organisers, a move which could have prevented the blunder.
The top sports body told the association it had a month to provide a written explanation and a road map for improving corporate governance.
The city government threw its weight behind the federation’s decision, saying it would consider reducing funding for the association as punishment. Sports minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung had stressed that any such cuts would not affect athletes.
