Walking with elite athletes at EdUHK

Samantha Liu

Elite Athlete Development Officer

Department of Health and Physical Education

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, EdUHK

Being a lover of sports, my father provided me with plenty of opportunities to play and learn about sports. When I was studying at primary school, he brought me to Hong Kong Sports Institute in Shatin where we did our weekly running practice. After practice, we would visit other training facilities to observe athletes going through different types of training. I believe my father’s love for sports cultivated my enthusiasm for physical exercise.

When I was a primary three student, I started playing tennis after my teacher recommended me to join the Hong Kong Tennis Development Team. When I reached primary six, my school recommended me to join the selection of Future Star programme organised by the Hong Kong Sports Institute. The annual programme aims to identify and select teenagers with the potential and passion to become an elite athlete for representing Hong Kong in regional and international events. I joined the selection exercises for tennis, track-and-field sports and cycling. At the end, the Hong Kong Cycling Team, instead of the tennis team, invited me to join. After that, I became a member of the Hong Kong Junior Cycling Team.

I joined the junior training team as a form one student in secondary school, and underwent cycling training with other teammates. During that period, I had the chance to get to know the Hong Kong star cyclist, Wong Kam-po. The requirements of the junior training team were very demanding and I needed to attend training six days a week. In addition to the strenuous training schedule, I also participated in competitions held in mainland China and overseas.

When I was a form three student, the coach of the Cycling Team said that it was time for me to decide my future, and asked if I was interested in becoming a full-time athlete. I recognised that I would need more time to prepare for the HKCEE examinations once I became a senior student, which would make it difficult for me to continue to meet the requirements of being both a student and an athlete at my secondary school. After great deliberation, I decided to withdraw from the Hong Kong team. However, my passion for sports didn’t fade. After leaving the training team for junior cyclists, I picked up tennis again and represented my secondary school team to compete in interschool competitions, including swimming, track-and-field and basketball. When I was studying for my bachelor’s degree, I became a member of the university’s tennis team.

After completing secondary school, I went on to study Industrial and Systems Engineering at university and worked in the engineering field for more than one year after graduation. Even though engineering work brought me satisfaction, my passion for sports didn’t dim over the years, which drove me to study for a master’s degree programme in sports science in my spare time. After completion of the programme, I made up my mind to leave the engineering field and applied for sports-related jobs. In the following years, I worked for the YMCA of Hong Kong, the Gymnastics Association of Hong Kong, China, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, a sports academy under New World Development Company Limited and other organisations, handling responsibilities for sports facilities management and sports events planning.

Explaining EdUHK’s pledge to be an “Elite Athlete Friendly University” at a seminar.

I learnt later that the Education University of Hong Kong wanted to hire an Elite Athlete Development Officer to help elite athletes to study at university while continuing their sports training, an arrangement usually called the Dual Career Pathway of Elite Athletes. I love sports, so it was with regret that I was forced to quit the junior cyclist training team because I couldn’t handle the conflicts between sports and academic pursuits. I felt that my personal experience granted me deeper insight into the struggles of elite athletes. I told myself, “It’d be very meaningful if I can use my past experience to help aspiring athletes to achieve their dreams of studying at university.

One of the main duties of an Elite Athlete Development Officer is to assist students in finding suitable internship opportunities. Thanks to my previous work, I had connections to many different people in the field – a network that would certainly help me to identify internship programmes most suited to athletes. I was glad that the University employed me, and I was able to become a member of this big family in the summer of 2019.

In recent years, some secondary schools in Hong Kong have designed courses tailored to the needs of elite athletes so they can receive training while continuing to study core subjects. Students from these schools are more capable of adapting to university life. However, there are some elite athletes who quit school at form three or four to enter full-time training. There are even athletes who have not attended school for close to 10 years by the time they join EdUHK. It is not easy for them to go back to school to study.

To help these elite athlete students pick up their university studies on schedule, EdUHK provides them with various bridging courses for subjects including Chinese, English and Mathematics, as well as other forms of support. Elite athletes face various challenges during the early stages of their school life. One of my key duties is to help them adapt to campus life as soon as possible. I meet them in person to understand their needs and work together with them to solve the difficulties they encounter. For instance, I will sit by them to teach them how to set up a student email account and how to use the university’s learning platforms. My hope is to not just help them solve such problems, but to also cultivate their ability to learn and do things independently.

To do a good job I have to familiarise myself with the situation of every elite athletes under my care, including their training timetables, competition schedules, requirements of the courses they take, and even their personal matters. Professional athletes live a very tough life; the training schedules of the Hong Kong team are very intensive. For example, rowing team members have to get up before dawn every morning at 5am and be prepared to start their daily training at 6am. Team members can take a nap after the morning training session ends around 9am. For members of the rowing team from EdUHK, however, they have to use the naptime to do revision and homework. I also use this short window to communicate with them to follow up on their learning progress.

Very often, elite athletes need to join competitions outside Hong Kong. Usually, they compete during daytime, and do their homework after returning to their dormitories or hotels at night. There are times they forget to do their assignments, as they are so intensely focused on preparing for competitions. To avoid putting extra pressure on them during such events – as that can adversely affect their performance – I need to have a clear picture of their daily schedule and contact them at the most appropriate times. I find the right moments to discuss with them arrangements for handling their assignments and answer their enquiries about the courses.

When an athlete student is unable to keep up with their studies, I will have a discussion with their teacher and arrange a make-up class for the athlete. Sometimes, elite athletes receive external invitations to participate in public events to share their experience as an athlete and a student of EdUHK. In these cases, I assist our students to liaise for the best arrangement. Oftentimes, I work just like an assistant talent manager.  

Understanding the learning needs of each student is the first duty of my job. When I notice that an elite athlete student is weak in certain subjects, I will communicate with the lecturers and Hong Kong Sports Institute to find the appropriate assistance, such as arranging extra tutoring, for the student. In addition, athlete students can have very different personalities. When I meet students with learning attitudes that are less than satisfactory, I will try to make them understand that society provides a host of resources to aid them in achieving their dual careers. By doing so, I hope they learn to appreciate the support from society and cherish the opportunities to live out their dreams. Sometimes, I share with them my own experience of being forced to give up my cycling career, hoping that my own story will touch and inspire them to think about how to persist on the dual career pathway.

Many athletes have a straightforward character and are used to accepting instructions from coaches. University education, however, involves more interactions between teachers and learners. When athlete students listen to a lecture given by a teacher, they realise they also have to put forward their own ideas. There are times when I need to remind them to pay more attention to their manner around others; thankfully, I often see improvements in them. For example, some athletes had no idea how to work with other students for group projects when they first entered EdUHK. By the time they became senior students, they were good leaders in group projects. Witnessing students mature after years of study is a constant source of satisfaction for me.

A photo taken with Wong Kam-po, one of EdUHK’s “Elite Athlete Friendly University” Ambassadors.

Speaking of job satisfaction, I’d like to share a story about me and Wong Kam-po. I first made his acquaintance when I was a member of the Hong Kong Cycling Team. When I was still a child back then, he was already a famous cyclist and a well-respected athlete in the Hong Kong team. He always took good care of younger members of the team, and peers like me called him “Ah Po Gor” (meaning brother Po). I remembered that when I contacted him for following up on his study status at the beginning, as he is one of the elite athlete students at EdUHK, I still addressed him as “Ah Po Gor”. Although our roles have changed, I continued to treat him like a big brother at EdUHK. After a while, “Ah Po Gor” very gently suggested that I call him  “Ah Po” instead of “Ah Po Gor”; he calls me Samantha. We now see each other as friends, though he still is “Ah Po Gor” in my mind.

Although I often offer advice to athlete students about how to adapt to campus life and about learning, our relationship is more than one-sided. When athletes participate in competitions, I become their fan: I follow their social media posts and send messages to cheer them on. I have gotten to know some of the athletes quite well, to the point they will even share their personal difficulties with me. I was deeply touched whenever some athletes would buy me souvenirs when they went overseas for competitions. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, one student bought me personal protective items after competing in Japan.

A photo taken with Lee Ho-ching (right), women’s table tennis bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

I have been working here for more than two years. Since 2010, more than 100 elite athletes have enrolled in different programmes at EdUHK, with around 70 of them still studying. There are times I feel the pressure of having to care for so many athletes. Every time I feel tired, however, I remind myself that it is a very meaningful job to be able to help athletes develop their sports career without giving up their studies.

The table tennis pair Doo Hoi-kem and Lee Ho-ching are both students from EdUHK, and they represented Hong Kong’s women’s table tennis team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. My colleagues and I watched the live broadcast of their match against the German team very excitedly. All of us were overjoyed when we learnt that Hong Kong defeated Germany and won the bronze medal. We were so proud of our students’ performance. My colleagues often tell me, “You look happy while you work, every day.” My job gives me the chance to support Hong Kong’s most outstanding athletes and help them realise their dreams. Because of this, perhaps, I enjoy my job very much.

The benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are countless. Exercise refreshes the mind. When difficulties in work or life overwhelm me and I feel trapped, I exercise to clear up my mind. Exercise helps to lift your mood and improve your ability to deal with challenges. Many times, I have found that a new idea for solving a problem will suddenly pop into my head while I am exercising. I sometimes play tennis with my working partners from the sports industry; on the tennis court, we find ourselves more relaxed with one another as we enjoy our games, and feel more at ease to exchange opinions and take our cooperation forward.

In recent years, public attention to sports in Hong Kong has been on the rise. In the past summer, the outstanding performance of Hong Kong athletes at the Tokyo Olympics aroused public interest in sports to new heights. You could even say there was a sports boom in the city during that time. I hope our community continues to support Hong Kong athletes and show interest in our city’s sports development. I also hope that different parties will work together to promote sports. At EdUHK, we will continue to nurture physical education teachers and sports professionals so that more Hong Kong people can enjoy the benefits of sports.

(Ms Samantha Liu collaborated with Tam Siu-man on this piece)