Anna 
A grassroots flag football movement in Hong Kong is aiming for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics after the Hong Kong LionroX team secured a spot as runners-up at one of Asia’s top flag football events.
The LionroX reached the final of the Ready for Play Tournament in Chonburi, Thailand, on February 9, where they were defeated 41-18 by the Kuala Lumpur Panthers.
Flag football, a non-contact version of American football, was the focus of the tournament. The Panthers fielded a team featuring six US national team players, as the event allowed unlimited imports.
The Hong Kong, China Gridiron Football Association, which is not yet officially recognized as a national sports body, is working towards building a team that can qualify for both Asian and world championships, with hopes of competing in the Los Angeles Games. The association is exploring the possibility of applying for official recognition.
“We started the LionroX team last autumn, with players from the gridiron football scene, which helped them reach the international level,” said Vincent Cheung Yin-zi, the team’s quarterback and the association’s registrar.
The association runs a Flag Football League, divided into a Competitive Division with 10 teams and a Coed Division with 8 mixed-gender teams.
Cheung, 29, explained that the Coed Division, launched in October, was created to attract more participants, especially women, as the association also plans to send a female team to the Olympics.
Along with LionroX, the association has established another mixed-gender team, Nightmarez Hong Kong. Last year, Nightmarez competed in a tournament in Hangzhou, China, with teams from the US, Germany, and Japan, gaining valuable experience. The team will also compete in the Ningbo Flag Football Open in May.
Cheung, who works as a researcher in occupational therapy at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was proud of LionroX’s performance in Thailand, especially considering they faced some of the best teams in the world.
“We’re excited about what we achieved, especially since the Malaysian team was filled with US national team players,” he said. “We even tied at half-time, which was a huge accomplishment for any Asian team, and especially for Hong Kong.”
Cheung believes their success in the tournament shows that Hong Kong is competitive on the international stage.
Unlike the multinational Panthers, LionroX’s team was mostly made up of local players, with only two of the 12 members not holding Hong Kong passports.
Cheung, who grew up in Canada and learned to play flag football at age 14, returned to Hong Kong last year. He noted that the local flag football scene, once dominated by expatriates, is now attracting more local players.
The association is focusing on laying the foundation for the future by hosting “fun days,” where people can play flag football for free. Talented players may eventually compete in international tournaments and possibly the Olympics if Hong Kong qualifies.
However, the movement has faced challenges, such as the difficulty in securing regular training spaces.
“It’s been going well, but finding a field to train on in Hong Kong is always an issue,” Cheung said. “We don’t have our own field yet.”
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