Portraits of National Sports Association

Interview with Ms Kam Kwok Fong,
Chief Executive and Vice-President of the
Hong Kong Badminton Association

Badminton is a sport that is suitable for both the young and the old alike. In the “2015 Hong Kong Open”, Ng Ka Long achieved his best results by defeating Lin Dan from China, and this increased the public’s interest in the development of badminton in Hong Kong. In this issue, we have invited Ms Kam Kwok Fong, Chief Executive and Vice-President of the Hong Kong Badminton Association (HKBA) to tell us about the history of the Association and its main work.

Silently promoting badminton over the years

The HKBA was established in 1934 with the aim to promote the development of badminton in Hong Kong. In the old days of Hong Kong, badminton was only popular among the upper class of society and only became popular later on. The HKBA has made important contributions which have allowed local athletes to make their way onto the global stage.

Over the past 80 years, the HKBA has selected athletes for special training and has developed a complete system for the selection and promotion of talent. It has also dedicated itself to organizing local tournaments and has proactively sent athletes to compete in international tournaments to increase exchanges between local and overseas athletes.

Despite being such a small place, Hong Kong has been blessed with many skilled badminton athletes who have competed in international tournaments such as the Olympics, Asian Games and BWF World Championships. In 1992, badminton became an Olympic sport for the first time and five Hong Kong athletes obtained the right to participate in this tournament. Ms Kam praised Hong Kong’s local athletes for their ability to defeat many players with higher world rankings than themselves, and said there was no doubt that they were strong as they made the impossible possible. In 2004, Hong Kong’s badminton athletes participated in 47 international tournaments and achieved results that included 6 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 21 bronze medals. The Hong Kong team is currently doing their best to prepare for the 2016 Olympics that will be held in summer in Rio de Janeiro. It is likely that the Hong Kong team will compete in the men’s and women’s singles and mixed doubles, and we look forward to the team giving a good performance on the international stage.

Organization of many tournaments and training of new talent

The HKBA organizes various tournaments every year, including the Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships. This tournament is one of the Super Series tournaments and attracts the best players from around the world. Ms Kam said: “The fact that Hong Kong Open is one of the 12 tournaments in the Super Series means that Hong Kong’s athletes are at an international level in terms of ability.”

Another key focus of the HKBA is its youth badminton development training programme which aims to find and train highly talented youth athletes to inject new blood into the badminton world. The HKBA has arranged this development programme for schools and youths to encourage those with potential to participate in the Youth Badminton Athletes Training Scheme. Once trainees achieve a certain level of skill and fitness, they can undergo a selection for the youth team and move their way up the ranks until they become a part of the Hong Kong team

Connecting society and advancing towards the future

In the 1990s, Hong Kong achieved record breaking successes in international badminton tournaments. This sparked a massive trend for the whole city to learn badminton and popularized this sport. At present, there are 83 affiliated clubs, of which 14 are community sports clubs. Ms Kam thinks that badminton clubs at the district level are beneficial for the development of badminton and considers them to be a platform on which the HKBA can communicate with the public.

The HKBA has managed to develop healthily over the years with its wealth of experience, but government funding has also played a huge part of this. Ms Kam hopes that the HKBA would be able to obtain even more funding in the future so that it can organize even more better-operated training programmes and tournaments for the public.

If you are interested in badminton, please visit the HKBA’s website
http://www.hkbadmintonassn.org.hk