The only part of the recent Legislative Council elections which cheered me up was the success of Ms Vivian Kong.
Former Olympic fencer Vivian Kong meets reporters on November 3, 2025, before handing in her application to run in the Legislative Council elections. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.This is not because I warmly support her political views. I know nothing of what she thinks, but my rule in these matters is that the vetting and selection of candidates is now so effective that anyone allowed to run can be considered someone I would not wish to vote for.
On the other hand, Ms Kong’s gold-winning Olympic efforts tickled the memory because I, too, was once an épéeist.
My career was much shorter and less glorious than hers. I was recruited at short notice by the Lancaster University fencing team because the league in which they played (North Lancashire had a fencing league? I was surprised too) required every team to include one épée person.
I had no relevant experience. Perhaps they thought someone who was used to waving an oar about would be able to handle the épée, which is heavier than the other two sport fencing swords, and has much simpler rules.
I expected to be massacred every week, but in practice, it appeared that many of the other teams had a similar shortage of épée specialists, so I did reasonably well apart from the rare occasions when I came across a real épée person who knew what he was doing.
The following year, such a person appeared at Lancaster University, so I retired to do other things. But fencing can be recommended. I enjoyed the ritual side of it, and for a military historian, it is a treat to practise a skill which was cherished by soldiers for centuries.
Ms Kong says she has learnt a great deal from her career as a professional sportsperson. She is a bright spark, has two real degrees and is working on a third. But the track record – if you’ll pardon the phrase in this context – of sporting superstars in politics is not impressive. Huge if rather patchy survey here.
Clearly, winning an Olympic medal requires an impressive amount of dedication and toil, typically spread over years. Putting the legendary 10,000 hours into acquiring one highly specialised skill must teach something. But how much of that is transferable?
Hong Kong fencer Vivian Kong poses with her gold medal after triumphing in the women’s individual épée event at the Paris 2024 Olympics in France, on July 27, 2024. Photo: SF&OC.It appears that a lot of former sportspeople have reached, and no doubt loyally served their respective communities in, what you might call the foothills of politics. In small countries, they may hope for ministerial posts connected with youth or sports. But getting on the podium is much rarer.
There are examples of political gold medal winners, though none of them actually managed an Olympic gold as well. There is Lester Bird, a distinguished cricketer who became prime minister of Antigua and Barbados, or George Weah, who, after playing for many of the best football clubs in Europe, became president of Liberia.
Combat sports have a mixed record. Khalimaagiin Battulga, a star of Sambo, later became president of Mongolia. The boxing champ who went on to become president of Uganda was the appalling Idi Amin.
Hong Kong citizens hoping for a livelier LegCo will note with approval that Ms Kong has at least excelled at something outside of politics, and hope that she does not drop her current day job.
An ominous trend in Hong Kong politics is the rise of the full-time politician who does nothing else, and indeed in some cases has never done anything else.
Looking at the list of Legco candidates, for example, of the 161 hopefuls, 28 described themselves only as “district councillor” and 16 offered only “lawmaker.”
Some of the jobs offered were also political (National People Congress member, trade union official) and some of them did not look as if they would take much of the candidate’s time (company director).
More than a third of those actually elected did not have a “day job”: 10 district councillors and 23 “lawmakers.”
The Legislative Council. Photo: Lea Mok/HKFP.We must suppose that some of the others will decide to give up, or become part-timers, in the professional activities they have declared, once the rather generous remuneration provided for LegCo members hits their bank balances.
Other pursuits may be difficult to combine with regular meetings. Lothair Lam, for example, is a “vessel captain.”
So I suppose that in the end, quite a lot of our representatives will be spared any contact with life as it is lived by the average voter.
This is perhaps a pity when it seems the average voter was not terribly impressed by them.
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