For the first time ever, Hong Kong is hosting the Rope Skipping World Championships. Rope skipping in Hong Kong has come a long way since the city first sent a team to the world championships back in 2004.
As part of the local government’s aggressive marketing of rope skipping as a sport (including being a sponsor for the championships), they’ve released a video showcasing the Hong Kong team’s skills and the rise of Hong Kong in the rope skipping world:
“When I jump, the rope moves along with my body. In fact it, becomes part of my body,” says Chu Tsz-kin, member of the national team.
Hui King Ching, also on the Hong Kong team, feels an equally deep connection with the sport: “To me, the rope is like a cheerleader. I can feel its intensity.”
In the video we watch the four-man team, three of which are record holders, practice impressive speed-skipping and choreographed routines that resemble breakdancing, but with the added challenge of whipping ropes. While the green-haired players work up a sweat, “It’s my life” by Bon Jovi plays on the stereo.
This year the Hong Kong team is sending its largest-ever delegation, with 159 local athletes getting to take part in the historic event, which includes a world youth tournament and an international open tournament.
Hong Kong’s time to shine will be during the demo-cup competition, which is when up to 16 players put on their best choreographed routine in eight minutes. Hong Kong won the demo-cup world championships back in 2010, when they were held in the U.K.
The Hong Kong team of course set their demo-cup routine to Cantopop in order to “build an atmosphere with high spirits”, says Kelvin Man, the chairman of the Hong Kong Rope Skipping Association and veteran of the sport himself, as a member of the original team that first represented Hong Kong ten years ago.
Near the end, the government-produced video veers into the hilarious as the narrator engages in some shameless fat-shaming, reassuring watchers that Man was never at any point fat (God forbid!) unlike his lazy, chubby classmate: “[Man] started rope skipping when he was 14. His school offered a training course, which aimed to help overweight students get in shape. He wasn’t fat himself, but was fascinated by the wonderful stunts and joined the course with a chubby classmate. His classmate quit skipping long ago but he is still going strong at 29 years of age.”
We’re really glad they really cleared up the question of whether or not Man was fat himself because that was a really important detail that we were all wondering about.
Man, who is now in charge of putting on the championships this year, says: “Rope skipping has changed my life. I never thought it could become a full time job. Now if there were no rope skipping there would be no me.”
Intense.
Check out our last article introducing the world championships, with a video of Hong Kong competing in 2010.
Screenshot/Video: Hong Kong government via Youtube
