Hong Kong Olympic gold medalist Vivian Kong said she would quit her fencing career days after controversy erupted over her apparent support for Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement, underscoring political tensions in the Asian finance hub.
An academic paper purported to be her master’s thesis showed that Kong, one of two athletes from the city to pick up a gold medal from the Paris Games, condemned 2014 protests calling for freer elections. The document began circulating last week and prompted some fans to turn their back on the athlete after initially celebrating her victory in women’s épée last month.
Nathan Law, a self-exiled former lawmaker and a student leader of the demonstrations, said Friday he made a mistake in congratulating Kong on her triumph, describing her political stance as “extremely problematic.” Many users on LIHKG, a forum popular with supporters of the 2014 movement, satirized Kong after embracing her as a pride of the former British colony.
Kong hasn’t publicly commented on the episode and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The 30-year-old Stanford graduate said in an Instagram post s…