Ronnie Wong Promoting The Sport On WOWSA Live
Sponsored by KAATSU Global, Hong Kong.
Ronnie Wong Man Chiu is the long-time chairman of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee.
The Hong Kong businessman, Olympian (1968 Mexico City Olympics + 1972 Munich Olympics as a swimmer in the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley + 1992 Barcelona Olympics as the Hong Kong team manager), open water swimmer (3-time winner of the 1968, 1969 and 1970 Hong Kong Cross-Harbour Swim), water polo player (Hong Kong team captain in the Asian Games), and event organizer talked on a wide variety of his experiences and global promotion of open water swimming with International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairman Ned Denison on today’s edition of WOWSA Live.
During his interview, he spoke about:
* first being invited to join the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee in 1992 and serving the sport since then
* getting marathon swimming into the Olympic Games
* sharing the 10 km marathon swimming course with the rowing community at the 2008 Beijing Games
* trying to promote athletes and increase the popularity of the sport and prize money
* difference between training in running versus swimming
* trying to add a 5 km race to the Olympic Games schedule
* talking about marathon swimming rules and protests
In a historical side note, Wong met and talked with the Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games in the Olympic Village dormitories right before their terrible murder of 11 Israeli athletes who were staying in the same dormitory as the Hong Kong team. “The teams were arranged alphabetically so the Israeli and Hong Kong Olympic athletes were stayed near each other,” he recalled.
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