沈金康

English

Shen Jinkang (born 1953 in Shanghai) is the coach who shaped modern Hong Kong cycling, serving for decades as chief coach of the Hong Kong cycling team. A leading Chinese middle- and long-distance road rider of the 1970s, he joined the Shanghai team in 1973 and the national squad a year later, winning most domestic road titles. In 1980 a truck struck him during a training ride in Taicang, Jiangsu; his left leg was crushed and had to be amputated, ending his riding career. He turned to coaching and in 1985 was elected chief coach of China's national men's cycling team - the first to win the post by election and a unanimous vote. Nine months later China won its first Asian Games cycling gold in the 100km team time trial at Seoul, and he later became the national team's head coach. At the 1990 Beijing Asian Games his squad set an Asian record in the 100km team time trial and took two golds and two silvers. In 1994 the state sports commission sent Shen to Hong Kong, initially for six months, to lift the team into the top six at the Hiroshima Asian Games. With almost no equipment, funding or full-time riders, he recruited the team's first athlete, Wong Kam-po, and together they built a career that made Wong the "Asian cycling king" and a world champion. He went on to develop Sarah Lee Wai-sze and others, contributing to more than a thousand medals for Hong Kong over nearly three decades. He founded China's first professional women's road team in 2006, raising its world ranking from 40th to 15th and securing three full quota places for the Beijing Olympics, and in 2017 was elected chairman of the Chinese Cycling Association. He has been honoured many times by Hong Kong's coaching awards and received the Medal of Honour, the Bronze Bauhinia Star and the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service, as well as an honorary doctorate from a local university; in 2025 he was appointed an honorary professor at The Education University of Hong Kong.