2025 National Games: politics of performance leaves Hong Kong in danger of triathlon failure
Head coach Andrew Wright says city is leaving talent untapped by not following mainland China’s lead in how to develop athletes
Where National Games triathlon medals were once “not exceptionally hard to get”, a change in mindset in mainland China has significantly raised the bar for the Hong Kong athletes who will compete on Central Harbourfront in November.
And whereas before the country had “two or three good athletes in total”, Andrew Wright, the Hong Kong head coach, now expects every province to come armed with three high-calibre men and women.
According to Wright, an ailing China Triathlon Sports Association was warned it risked losing funding if none of its athletes directly qualified for last year’s Paris Olympics.
Lin Xinyu earned her place to assuage those fears, finishing 28th out of the 51 athletes in the women’s race, but the Olympic demand lit a fire under the sport’s bosses.
“They copied what happens everywhere else in the world, where coaches go into swim programmes and anyone not at the top level is switched into triathlon,” said Wright, who has been arguing for Hong Kong to follow suit since his appointment in 2020.
“We have so many swimmers who come to nothing, but it’s not happened here,” the 42-year-old said. “It feels political … but these are results for Hong Kong, and between the associations and Hong Kong Sports Institute [HKSI] we should be doing it.”
