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Former iron lady of Hong Kong sport wants fair play in Olympic eligibility

Betty Mair is urging the IOC to recognise the city's unique status

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Betty Mair is urging the Hong Kong Olympic Committee to sort out the contentious issue of Hong Kong-based athletes being unable to compete at the Olympics because they don't hold a local passport. Photo: SCMP Pictures

She is a voice from the past but Betty Mair is her same old self and does not pull her punches.

Mair is urging the Hong Kong Olympic Committee to sort out the contentious issue of Hong Kong-born athletes - or those who have lived here for most of their lives - being unable to compete at the Olympics because they don't hold a local passport.

Mair, a former chief recreation and sports officer with the now-defunct Recreation and Sports Service (RSS), has thrown her weight behind the latest athlete to fall foul of an International Olympic Committee ruling that athletes wishing to compete at the Olympics must hold a passport of their respective country.

"What everyone, including the Hong Kong Olympic Committee and certainly the IOC, fails to recognise is this city is a unique case and a unique situation calls for unique thinking," Mair said. "There is an extraordinary reason why we walk into the Olympic Games under the Bauhinia flag and that is because we are not a country but a special administrative region of China.

We need people who can appreciate that there is no other place like Hong Kong
Betty Mair

"A de O Sales [a former head of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee] fought for our independence as a sporting entity and that is why we are still able to take part at the Olympics and other multisports games as a separate National Olympic Committee. But this should also mean our athletes should be able to go, especially if they are born here or have lived here for a long time," Mair said.

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