Hong Kong Sports Institute: sports medicine and science from theory to practice.

The Hong Kong Jubilee Sports Centre was established in 1981 as the National Training Centre for elite sportsmen and sportswomen in Hong Kong. There were 11 residential sports: soccer, badminton, table tennis, tennis, fencing, gymnastics, squash, rowing, windsurfing, track and field, and swimming, each with a system of professional coaches and supporting technical staff. A number of non-residential sports were also accommodated within the available facilities or expertise at the centre such as: cycling, judo, shooting, archery, wushu (Chinese martial art), sports for the handicapped and triathlon. In 1991 there was a major structural change at the Jubilee Sports Centre. As part of the overall evolution of a new system of sports management in Hong Kong the Jubilee Sports Centre was renamed the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) and now serves as the technical arm of Hong Kong sports for the training and development of elite sportsmen and sportswomen (Figure 1). There has been a growing awareness in the sporting community that a major impetus for the enhancement of peak performance in athletes stems from an intimate cooperation between coach and athlete on the one hand and technical support of the sports science and sports medicine professionals on the other hand. This formula for success has been well proven in many of the giant sports nations.