Hong Kong Jockey Club And International Olympic Committee Reaffirm Partnership

3 July 2008

The Club and IOC Museum Begin Talks on Memorabilia Collection to Create Legacy from 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

The Hong Kong Jockey Club and the International Olympic Committee reaffirmed their partnership in promoting Olympism during an official ceremony today that highlighted the Club's donation to the Olympic Museum.

The ceremony featured the unveiling of a Jockey Club-engraved stone on the Wall of Contributors at the IOC Museum in Lausanne, in recognition of a US$1 million contribution from the Club. "I'm proud to see the Club's name and logo on the Museum donors' wall, because like the IOC, we at the Club believe that sporting endeavour helps build international unity, respect and excellence," Club Chairman John C.C. Chan said during the proceedings. At the same ceremony, the IOC President Jacque Rogge pointed out that the Olympic Museum is a place to discover and better understand the Olympic values and their importance within our modern society.  "The Hong Kong Jockey Club understands and shares these values," said President Jacques Rogge. "I thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club for its support and commitment to the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Games."

The Club's donation is a further demonstration of its ongoing mission to support the Beijing Olympics and spread the Olympic Spirit in Hong Kong and the region. As well as investing HK$1.2 billion (USD150 million) in building and outfitting the 2008 Olympic equestrian venues, which equestrian experts have praised as superlative and precedent-setting, the Club is sponsoring Hong Kong's first-ever Olympic team riders. The Club's Equestrian Youth Ambassador Programme includes both Hong Kong and Beijing students, and its online global campaign has people submitting photos to cheer on Hong Kong's Olympic athletes.

Locally, the Jockey Club has roused community excitement about the Beijing Games by exhibiting horse statues throughout Hong Kong, setting up interactive Olympic exhibits and carnival displays, organizing art contests at schools and commissioning two life-size horse statues. One of the latter, by design student Michelle Lau, was presented to Rogge today and is on view in the Olympic Museum. Lau has won numerous prizes in United Nations and international contests, including a "Best Individual" award in the prestigious Small Montmartre of Bitola '08 competition.

In addition to the Olympic Museum donation, the ties between the not-for-profit Club and IOC include an agreement to pave the way for developing a Hong Kong Olympic Museum and to boost sports and Olympic values across Asia. "We're in it for the long haul," Chan said of the Club's partnership with the IOC. "And since each of our institutions is already more than a century old, when we say ˉlong haul,' we mean it."

Mr. Chan also announced that the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has invited Timothy Fok, president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, to join the Hong Kong Olympic Museum board as Vice-Chairman. The board is charged by the Club's Charities Trust to supervise the planning, and ultimately operation, of the museum.

The Club and IOC also held discussions about collecting memorabilia from the upcoming Games.  The SF&OC has agreed to display the Hong Kong's Olympic Torch Relay Cauldron in the Hong Kong Olympic Museum.  Seen by future generations, the future Museum will reinforce the vitality and legacy of the first-ever Games hosted by the Chinese people and Hong Kong's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as an Olympic co-host city.