Recently an Instagram account (@im_neversquat) exposed many suspicious activities done by the HKWPA, an affiliated organization with IPF. As HKWPA is known as the organization responsible for IPF competitions in Hong Kong, these are serious misconducts that needs to be addressed. So far, the powerlifting organization has not responded to any of the allegations listed. Let us take a look at the information we have so far:
Claiming Funds From Government for Expenses that Do Not Exist
In the financial report for the year for 2020-2021, HKWPA listed expenses such as “International Events Hold outside Hong Kong” and “Meetings/Conferences” which were at $443 786 HKD and $36 222 respectively. However, in 2020-2021, as Hong Kong was in lockdown, no athletes went overseas to compete. This made the “International Events” claim very suspicious. Apart from that, spending over $35k on meetings during lockdown was questionable as well.
To give them the benefit of the doubt, Zoom Business is priced at $199 USD ($1552 HKD) per user for a year. If they had 23 members and needed professional zoom accounts for rooms that can entertain 300 users, the cost would be explainable.
Collecting Covid Protection Fee From Athletes
To compete in HKWPA’s competition, athletes have to pay $1000 HKD. Within that 1k, $300 is used for drug test and $100 is used for “Covid protection”. However, in the livestream they posted, volunteers did not use alcohol to wipe benches in between lifters. Hong Kong also loosened the Covid regulations during the competition which made the extra $100 fee seem redundant.
Blatantly Ignoring the Mask Rule on Livestream
The president of HKWPA, Pok Kim Won, was walking around the competition venue mask-free while everyone else was wearing a mask. It should be noted that Hong Kong had yet to lift the mask rule on 18 February 2023, which means that Mr. Pok has violated the mask rule.
The reason why this is outrageous is because the organization collected the $100 HKD fee from athletes for covid protection. If the organization did not collect the fee and enforce everyone else to wear a mask, this should not blow up as a controversy. However, this incident made IPF HK/HKWPA look bad due to their lack of integrity.
Holding the Hong Kong Flag Upside Down
As Hong Kong imposed the National Security Law, authorities are taking national security very seriously. This means mistreatment of flags is no longer tolerable to certain people. The Hong Kong government took measures to investigate the incident where the wrong song was played during the IPF Dubai awards ceremony.
Ip Wing Yuk and Pok Kim Won held the Hong Kong flag upside down in multiple occasions. In other countries, this would also be a serious offence. To make things worse, they posted the pictures more than once. If this is a genuine accident, it is pathetic to have executives in the organization that selects athletes to represent Hong Kong. Once again, in other countries, this is also unacceptable behavior.
Other issues with Hong Kong IPF
- Not allowing athletes to compete in other federations
- Increasing administration fee when people register as member
Final Thoughts
IPF Korea is still under fire due to banning athletes unreasonably to establish monopoly in the powerlifting community. In Hong Kong, HKWPA selects athletes to compete internationally and even sends Olympic lifters to the Olympic. This makes this controversy a lot more serious than an “Instagram exposé”. Apart from that, the organization claims money from the Hong Kong government. All in all, this is a huge scandal and the IPF Hong Kong/ HKWPA has to address these allegations swiftly.