Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting in Hong Kong

For the 2021-22 year, it received an all-time-high of $2,303,899 in SSS dollars. We are still determining how much ASDF money it received for for that year so we can give you a total amount of money it received.

* Additionally, for 2020-21, the government gave extra subsidies, labelled “additional subvention” to HKWPA, totaling $333,000:
– $259,000 for “Participations in overseas competitions”
– $40,000 for “Squad training programmes”
– $35,000 for “Operating costs”

This brings the total 2020-2021 taxpayer funding to $2,932,017.

Taxpayer Money Spent

In yearly SSS disclosures, HKWPA has spent money on both “personnel” and “office” expenses. For example, in the 2016-17 year, it spent $438,784.92 on “personnel” and $258,045.64 on “office” expenses, meaning at least 53% of its total funding that year was spent on overhead. We believe that all personnel of their organization should be unpaid volunteers, and that only minimal office expenses are necessary. Additionally, we do not know why it even needs an office, given that it has its training facility at the Wan Chai Sports Ground and could utilize space there.

We also believe that all yearly SSS disclosures should be easily accessed by the public and more visible; we had a hard time finding them. Therefore, we have published the SSS disclosures that we did find:
2015-16: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2015.png
2016-17: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2016.png
2017-18: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2017.png
2018-19: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2018.png
2019-20: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2019.png
2020-21: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2020.png
2021-22: https://hkweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2021.png

In the 2018-19 disclosure, an all time high of $529,476.57 was spent on “personnel” expenses. Additionally, there is no insight on how they spent their ASDF money, and we believe that since the organization is funded by taxpayers, it should release reports on how it uses ASDF money. In fact, the Hong Kong government’s Audit Commission found in 2020 that money distributed by the ASDF had a lack of accountability, supervision, and compliance.

We believe that HKWPA should be 100% transparent with every single tax dollar that it takes in.

Financial Theft

On March 1st 2022, HKWPA revealed that it had received a complaint, alleging that HKWPA was illegally taking money from an Sports Aid Grant (SAG). The SAG is given by the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and 100% of it is meant to go to elite athletes, and not to the association.

If true, this means that HKWPA has stolen from the very athletes it is meant to help train and grow. Since the SAG is also funded by taxpayer money, HKWPA has shown that it cannot be trusted with any funding, and that there is a severe lack of transparency in its financials.

Financial statements

Every year, companies are required to file an annual return with the government’s Company Registry. HKWPA was incorporated in March 2016, and despite receiving and spending taxpayer money every year, did not file any annual returns until March 2022. Why did HKWPA not submit their returns on a yearly basis? If they do not follow government regulations, why do they still receive government funding? After March 2022, the “Pending” Financial Statements and NAR1 disappeared from the Company Registry, and are not available to view. Were these documents rejected by the Company Registry due to irregularities?

Investigation

We learned that in 2022, the government had begun an investigation into HKWPA due to potential crimes within the organization. Why is HKWPA still recognized as an NSA, when they are under investigation by the government?

Athletes

For several financial years (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20), HKWPA reported to the government that it trains exactly 50 athletes. Other NSAs (National Sports Associations) listed in the report have a varying amount of athletes each year, as one would expect. Yet for some reason, HKWPA says it trains exactly 50 each year. It is entirely plausible that they are not keeping track and being accountable of who they “train.”

Also, Hong Kong SFOC (Sports Federation and Olympic Committee) dictates that observer NSAs should have at least 300 members. We believe that HKWPA has far fewer than 300 members.

Banning Other Competitions

HKWPA has banned people from lifting in other competitions- for example, Daniella Means (1, 2) and Tyler Man. In 2020, HKWPA reiterated its stance about having people not participate in other competitions. Instead of promoting and growing the sport, HKWPA tries to selfishly control people who want to lift.

Hong Kong Competitions

When HKWPA has competitions in Hong Kong, they invite athletes from mainland China to compete, who blow out local Hongkongers and take top places. We think that HKWPA does not have enough local HK competitors, and invites mainland Chinese athletes because there would otherwise be very few people at their competitions. In our opinion, HKWPA should do more to build up the local talent in Hong Kong so that they don’t need to rely on mainland China for athletes; what’s the point of being a local Hong Kong organization if it needs to rely on lifters from other areas?

Additionally, according to their records, they have only hosted 2 local Olympic weightlifting competitions, in 2010 and then in 2019. According to SFOC rules:

The applicant must organize no less than one international or inter-regional championship and one local championship each calendar year in no less than three years in the past five years;

Therefore, we believe that HKWPA does not meet SFOC rules on being a member NSA for Olympic weightlifting. Either that, or it includes and blends in its number of powerlifting competitions when reporting the number of competitions it has- falsely making it seem like it hosts competitions for Olympic weightlifting. The SFOC should therefore require that HKWPA, which claims oversight of both sports (powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting), fulfill its competition requirement for both sports. Additionally, we believe the membership requirement of 300 people should apply to each sport, rather than both combined; therefore, we think HKWPA should have at least 600 members if they were to follow the rules.

Regional Competitions

HKWPA also does not invite athletes in Hong Kong to participate in weightlifting competitions hosted by the Asian Weightlifting Championships or the Asian Games. For example, the deadline to register athletes for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou was in February 2021. However, HKWPA did not attempt to invite athletes, and instead only invites people to powerlifting competitions. For example, on their website, they have even invited people to participate in a bench press competition in Kazakhstan. Yet, after monitoring their website notices for the past several years, we have not seen them ever invite people to the Asian Weightlifting Championships or the Asian Games.

Poor IWF Results

Despite being recognized by IWF, HKWPA has only had 6 registered athletes ever with the IWF. At least one of those registered athletes is an HKWPA board member, meaning that the true number of athletes is actually lower than 6. Also, the last time any of the 6 athletes have competed in an IWF competition was 2016. By comparison, Singapore has had 23 athletes compete at IWF events, and they most recently competed in 2021. HKWPA has had a monopoly on Olympic weightlifting in Hong Kong, where the number of lifters has been growing, yet still cannot manage to send athletes to IWF events.

Other Federations

Because HKWPA has been a terrible organization, other people in Hong Kong have decided to take things into their own hands. For powerlifting, Hong Kong Powerlifting Federation was started, and for Olympic weightlifting, the Hong Kong Weightlifting Federation was created. We suggest working with those organizations rather than HKWPA.

Lack of Community

HKWPA does not partner with any gyms or coaches. Its own facility at the Wan Chai Sports Ground is inadequate and very few people regularly go, yet it still does not partner with other gyms to promote powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting. Its facility only opens when it hosts classes, when they choose to exclusively have powerlifting classes rather than adding some weightlifting classes.

It also does not partner with coaches. In 2020, the government gave subsidies of $7,500 and $5,000 to coaches recognized by their NSAs. However, since HKWPA does not partner with any of the many powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting coaches in Hong Kong, those coaches were not able to receive any funds during COVID-19 shutdowns. In January 2022, another subsidy of $5,000 was given to recognized coaches, but HKWPA still had not partnered with any coaches.

Branding

HKWPA has their own Instagram page, and they do not even try to pretend that they care about Olympic weightlifting. Their bio says:

Powerlifting Hong Kong. Affiliated to IPF(International Powerlifting Federation) and APF( Asian Powerlifting Federation)

It has no mention of weightlifting. In fact, going through all of their posts since their first one on 2 August 2018, they have not made a single one about weightlifting; all 80+ of their posts are solely about powerlifting.

Their official Facebook page is the same thing. They call themselves “Powerlifting Hong Kong” and only promote powerlifting:

Summary

You should boycott any events and competitions held by HKWPA. They do not deserve to have IWF and IPF recognition, and should be dropped by the SFOC for using significant taxpayer money for unknown purposes. They have a poor track record of promoting the sports of powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting, and are detrimental to the city of Hong Kong. We believe that they fundamentally need to change, or cease to exist, in order for the sports to be better.