Our Desk | Things I’ve learned from the visit of China’s Olympic Medalists

Renato Marques

A delegation of China’s Olympic medalists recently toured the two special administrative regions. In the case of Macau, the delegation stayed in the territory for four days.
Although neither the event nor its purpose represented anything really new or special -similar events have been held in previous editions of the Olympic Games – there were a few highlights of this year’s edition that got my attention.
Firstly, I would like to say that – contrary to what happens in other places in the world, where similar events also happen – the delegation that toured Macau did not “show” any “medals” because they did not have any with them to show. This somewhat reduced the significance of the event, given that we were told they were coming to tour the territory exactly because they earned the “special” precious metal pendant.
A second point I must address is the issue of the ticketing. The government mentioned that there were some considerable differences in the budgets of the tours to Hong Kong and Macau, which led to the fact that, contrary to what happened in the neighboring region where the events had free tickets, in Macau tickets were issued by the Sports Bureau (ID) and were catered to the Macau residents.
So, what happened is that apparently Macau residents were not that interested in meeting with China’s Rio Olympic champions but, instead, saw a good opportunity to make some extra pocket money. Several cases of the tickets being resold for up to RMB500 on Taobao shopping website were reported.
The incident that ID said to be “aware of” apparently did not result in any outcome, although the responsible ID person, Cheang Kuok Wai, said the bureau was working together with the Judiciary Police and the Economic Services regarding issues involving scalpers.
Maybe the incident is not that important and we can include this as an opportunity for local residents to enroll in entrepreneurship activities for economy diversification, but still from where I’m sitting, it looks like an activity as illegal as Uber (or more) which is easier to target the offenders.
But let’s leave the negative points behind and focus on the good things that I’ve learned from this visit.
For example, I’ve learned that Ms Leong Lai, the Director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, not only possesses an extremely good Mandarin proficiency, but she also possesses amazing skills as Master of Ceremonies (MC) and debate moderator.
Her performance as presenter and moderator during the meeting of the medalists with the local youngsters was definitely impressive at all levels. A performance deserving of a “gold medal.”
Another of the good points is that I learned that local entrepreneurs, associations and foundations are always open to give a helping hand to those in need.
I’m referring to the MOP 14 million that Macau offered to the Olympic medalists that visited the region (not sure why or who asked for that) but that it is a fact that Henry Fok Foundation contributed with the larger slice of the cake, offering MOP5 million to the athletes. The Association of Chinese Enterprises of Macau came next on the donations list offering MOP 3 million and the “bronze medal” went to the relatives of the late entrepreneur Ma Man Kei who handed another MOP 2 million.
Legislators Chan Meng Kam and Fong Chi Keong, Tai Fung Bank and Lei Chi Keong also provided a few ‘tips’ of MOP 1 million each.
And then two things crossed my mind: certainly for the coming year none of these generous people will need any funding from Macao Foundation; imagine if they give MOP 14 million to promote local sports, we might even get to have our own athletes in the Olympics.