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Echoing with the upcoming Olympics, the HKSI and Hong Kong Society of Sport & Exercise Psychology (HKSSEP) jointly organised the 2024 Sport Psychology Conference themed on “Psychological Challenge for the Paris Olympics” on 6 March 2024 at the HKSI. The Conference was once again held at the HKSI since its first edition in 2018. The Conference attracted close to 100 overseas and local guests, including sport psychology practitioners, coaches, athletes, representatives from the sporting community and students.

Professor Chung Yongchul, Professor of Sogang University, Korea; Ms Bi Xiao-ting, the Person in Charge of the Psychology Department/ Sports Psychology Laboratory of Jiangsu Institute of Sports Science Sports, China; and Dr Chen Mei-chi, Sport Psychologist of the HKSI were invited to share their experience and exchange views on the most common psychological support needs of athletes during competitions.

Dr Raymond So, Director of Elite Training Science and Technology of the HKSI, delivered his opening remarks at the event that the Conference was a valuable opportunity for information exchange, as well as sharing of experience, views, and market intelligence among the participants, with an ultimate aim to foster a closer collaboration of different stakeholders. Dr Henry Li, HKSSEP President and HKSI Senior Sport Psychologist, was delighted to see the HKSI and HKSSEP co-organised the Sport Psychology Conference again, and believed it had effectively promoted sport psychology in the community and served as a platform to facilitate professional development of sport psychology experts.

With over 20 years of experience in sport psychology, Professor Chung Yongchul shared insights gathered from his extensive communications with athletes. He also expressed his views on present and future development of Sports in Korea from the viewpoint of a professional psychological consultant and introduced the current practices of Korea’s sport psychology industry.

Ms Bi Xiao-ting illustrated her experience by case studies and reviews on her professional service in mental training and consultation for Team China. Over the past 16 years, she has continued applying the concepts and methodologies of mental training in Team China’s preparation for the Olympics, aiming to assist athletes and coaches to strike a balance between the pursue of sport excellence and mental health. Her mental training programmes were designed and implemented in accordance with the needs of individual sporting team.

Dr Chen Mei-chi shared her long-term experience working with elite athletes in Taiwan. She witnessed the ups and downs of athletes in their sporting careers and has made them realise the important role of adversity in personal growth. Combining sport psychology research and Satir therapy model, she has developed a mental training model grounded by the sense of self-identity and started her applied research on elite athletes in Taiwan. Through this mental training model, athletes not only learnt to know themselves better, they could also excel with less self-criticism.