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A telephone survey was conducted from 29 to 31 August 2016 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gauge public views on the performance of mainland and Hong Kong athletes in Rio Olympics. 716 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 39.0%.  The sampling error is + or – 3.67 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. 

Major findings are summarized as follows: 

About two-thirds (66.2%) of the respondents followed the Rio Olympics very closely or closely. Only three-tenths (30.0%) said they did not quite follow it or did not follow it at all. Compared with last Olympics held in London, more than one-fifth (24.4%) of the respondents felt that Hong Kong people paid more attention to the Rio Olympics while similar proportion (26.3%) of the respondents felt the opposite. At the same time, 43.7% of them felt the attention level was about the same for both Olympics. 

Nearly seven-tenths (68.3%) of the respondents followed the performance of mainland athletes very closely or closely, while about three-tenths (28.9%) did not quite follow it or did not follow it at all. For the performance of Hong Kong athletes, almost four-fifths (78.6%) of the respondents followed it very closely or closely. Those who did not quite follow it or did not follow it at all only account for less than one-fifth (17.4%). Compared with London Olympics, a little more than one-fifth (20.3%) of the respondents said that they paid less attention to the performance of mainland athletes while 15.6% said that they paid more attention to it. Meanwhile, less than one-tenth (7.3%) of the respondents said that they paid less attention to the performance of Hong Kong athletes while close to two-fifths (39.7%) said that they paid more attention to it. Around three-fifths (61.9%) and one-half (51.0%) said the attention level was about the same for mainland and Hong Kong athletes’ performance, respectively.

About two-fifths (40.1%) of the respondents were satisfied with the performance of mainland athletes while 5.2% were not satisfied with it. More than one-half (56.8%) of the respondents were satisfied with the performance of Hong Kong athletes and 5.0% were not satisfied with it. When asked about whether they felt proud of the performance of mainland and Hong Kong athletes in Rio, around one-half (51.4%) of the respondents said they felt proud of the performance of mainland athletes and more than three-fifths (62.7%) said they felt proud of the performance of Hong Kong athletes. At the same time, 43.4% and 32.7% said that they did not feel proud of the performance of mainland or Hong Kong athletes.

On the contribution of sports to the overall Hong Kong economics, about a quarter (24.7%) of the respondents said it makes very large or quite large contribution. More than one-half (55.9%) said it makes some contribution while around one-tenth (12.9%) said it does not make any contribution at all. Around one-half (53.3%) of the respondents said that if Hong Kong allocates more resource to develop sports, the emphasis should be more on promoting public participation in sports while 35.3% said that the emphasis should be more on cultivating elite athletes. The survey also asked the respondents whether the Rio Olympic increased their interest to participate in sports, only about three-tenths (30.3%) said yes and more than three-fifths (65.6%) said no.