59 Chinese Olympic champions to visit Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

A total of 65 Chinese Olympians, including 59 gold medalists at the Paris 2024 Olympics, will visit south China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) from August 29 to 31, the HKSAR government announced on Friday.

At Paris 2024, China achieved their best-ever performance at an overseas Olympics, finishing with 40 golds.

Chinese athletes have achieved breakthroughs in several team events like the artistic swimming team event, women's rhythmic group all-around gymnastics and men's 4x100m medley relay swimming.

The only Olympic champion to skip the trip to Hong Kong will be Zheng Qinwen, the women's singles tennis champion, who is in New York preparing for the U.S. Open.

Table tennis star Ma Long, who won his sixth Olympic gold medal in Paris in the men's team event, will be visiting Hong Kong as an Olympic delegation member for the third time.

Ma will be joined by swimming star Zhang Yufei, who took one silver and five bronze medals, as well as Ou Zixia and Li Hong, members of the women's hockey team that took the silver medal.

The delegation, which will be led by Gao Zhidan, president of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC), also includes eight coaches.

After arriving in Hong Kong, the delegation will attend a welcome meeting and dinner hosted by the HKSAR government, visit the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and interact with athletes of China's Hong Kong. They will leave on August 31 to start a similar visit to the Macao Special Administrative Region.

The Olympians will attend a gala show before showcasing their skills at two demonstrations at Queen Elizabeth Stadium and Victoria Park swimming pool. Over 5,000 tickets for all the three events were sold out in about half an hour on Thursday.