Published on Career Center on ClassifiedPost.com

Proof is in the medals

Like most top executives, Trisha Leahy expects her performance to be scrutinised. But unlike others who are assessed primarily by sales revenue, share price or efficiency, she knows that people will ultimately judge her by just one measure: medals.

That is because, as chief executive of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Leahy oversees the training and support programmes designed to put elite local athletes on the podium at the major multisports games.

And, with a record tally of 40 medals from last year's Asian Games, and international counterparts increasingly keen to learn from Hong Kong's system, it is clear that the present formula is getting results.

"The role of sports in our society and getting a medal goes beyond the cost," says Leahy, who has a PhD in psychology. She has advised competitors at the Sydney Olympic Games when working at the Australian Institute of Sport. "It helps to develop national identity. [It] is a public health tool and builds community spirit so sports policy is a priority for governments around the world."

Given this, one of her own priorities is to create different pathways, allowing talented youngsters to fulfil their sporting potential, while not missing out in other areas. Reaching elite level and winning medals needs close to full-time training - it is estimated that it takes 10,000 hours' practice to approach international standards in a chosen sport - but any athlete's career is short.

The institute is therefore co-ordinating with colleges, universities and employers to introduce more flexibility for those in further education and to ease the transition of high-performance athletes into the next stage of their careers.

"The challenge is to facilitate alternatives and have more flexible education pathways," says Leahy, who is familiar with the traditional views and ambitions of parents in Hong Kong. "The ideal is to make systemic change at university and high school level [to give time for coursework and training]. Then we can have an answer for parents who don't want to `sacrifice' their child's academic development for sporting success."

For Leahy, such opportunities to bring change on a wider scale were some of the job's big attractions.

Backed by HK$1.8 billion government investment in top-class facilities and with sustai