PolyU's sports teams win three consecutive Grand Slams in the Inter-collegiate Competition, showcasing the University’s efforts in nurturing elite athletes

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has always put emphasis on the whole-person development of students. By promoting a sporting culture on campus, the University hopes that students can further develop their self-confidence, team spirit, self-discipline and perseverance. PolyU's sporting ethos has enabled its student-athletes to thrive in the sports scene. PolyU women's swimming team members Toto WONG Kwan-to (School of Optometry, PolyU) and Tinky HO Nam-wai (Division of Business and Hospitality Management, Hong Kong Community College, PolyU) are representing the Hong Kong swimming team in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay and 4x200m Freestyle Relay events respectively in the Tokyo Olympics this year. Michael NG Yu-hin (Department of Rehabilitation Science, PolyU), record holder of the Hong Kong Short Course Men’s 200m Breaststroke, will participate in the FINA Swimming World Championships (25m) to be held in Abu Dhabi this December. He is also aiming to participate in the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou next year.

For tertiary sports, PolyU's Sports Teams once again achieved remarkable results in the 2020-2021 Inter-collegiate Competition organised by The University Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China (USFHK). The Teams managed to bring home nine championships, four 1st runners-up and four 3rd runners-up places in the 22 sports they participated in. They won the Yearly Men’s and Yearly Women’s Overall Championships for the third time in a row, claiming PolyU’s first-ever triple successive championships in tertiary sports. In addition, nine PolyU students were named “Most Valuable Players”, recognising their impressive performance in their respective events. (PolyU - 2020-2021 USFHK Competition Results)

Dr LAM Tai-fai, Chairman of PolyU Council, commended the outstanding performance of the student-athletes at the award presentation ceremony. He said, “PolyU has won three consecutive Grand Slams at the Inter-collegiate competitions, illustrating that the University excels in education as well as in the promotion of sports. We are proud of our student-athletes' great results this year, which required not only their own hard work, but also the collective efforts of various parties, including our coaches and the support provided by the University. Apart from strengthening our physical fitness, sports can also train our soft skills, such as analytical power, judgment and cooperative spirit, which are all very important for the whole-person development of young people. I hope our student-athletes will continue to shine on the sports field with the support of the University, and bring the unique sporting culture of PolyU to the forefront.”

Professor Jin-Guang TENG, President of PolyU, was pleased with the performance of the PolyU Sports Teams and said, “Sporting excellence is not defined solely by winning in competitions. It goes much beyond that. Well-structured training sessions pushed our student-athletes to reach the next level of sporting excellence. This required a high level of motivation and discipline, especially in the midst of the pandemic. The strong adaptability and resilience of our athletes, as well as the strong back-up they received from the PolyU community in their sporting endeavours, made the PolyU Sports Teams the Champion teams!”

PolyU has initiated various initiatives to facilitate elite student-athletes’ dual development in sports and academic studies, including the Outstanding Sportsmen Recommendation Scheme (OSRS), which has been established for more than 20 years. To date, more than 1,000 elite athletes were admitted to various full-time programmes through the Scheme. Besides, PolyU offers more than 200 scholarships to student-athletes every year to recognise their distinguished sports achievements and to support their studies. Entry scholarships ranging from HK$10,000 to full annual tuition fee waivers of HK$42,100 were also presented to some of these elite athletes.

PolyU will furthermore offer different types of support for elite student-athletes to enable them to strike a balance between sports life and studying. The measures include providing student-athletes with individual mentorship in their academic work and, with regard to general adjustment to university life, offering them flexibility in study assessment schedules to cope with their intensive training routines and worldwide competitions, and/or extending their study period.

For more details about the Outstanding Sportsmen Recommendation Scheme (OSRS), please visit: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/sao/cws/sports-development/sports-team/osrs/

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