Jennifer Snow Lee (born 15 August 1965) is a
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
equestrian.
Personal life
Lee is a native of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
She is married to Sam Lee Kwok-Tung, a Hong Kong Chinese man, with whom she has two children, and moved to Hong Kong with him in 1994.
Equestrian career
Lee began representing Hong Kong in equestrian competition at the international level soon after her arrival. She won medals in every competition in which she participated since 2001, held Hong Kong's high jump record, and was ranked 11th in the world in the
International Federation for Equestrian Sports
The International Federation for Equestrian Sports (, FEI) is the international sport governing body, governing body of equestrianism, equestrian sports. The FEI came into being following the Olympic Congress in Lausanne (SUI) in 1921 from May ...
' World Jumping Challenge.
With Lee's skill, and
equestrian at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Equestrianism, Equestrian competitions in all three disciplines at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from 9 August to 21 August at the Hong Kong Sports Institute and Sheung Yue River in Hong Kong. It was the 1956 Summer Olympics, sec ...
being held in Hong Kong rather than Beijing with the rest of events, it was a natural next step for her to attempt to participate, but her road to the Olympics was filled with obstacles. Lee, along with fellow U.S. citizen showjumpers
Jennifer Chang and
Charlotte Morse and U.K. citizen dressage rider
Aram Gregory, were not successful in obtaining special dispensations from the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
to compete for Hong Kong without holding Chinese nationality. Among them, Lee and Gregory chose to apply to for naturalisation as Chinese nationals to the
Hong Kong Immigration Department
The Immigration Department is a disciplined service under the Government of Hong Kong, responsible for immigration control of Hong Kong.
After the handover of Hong Kong to China in July 1997, Hong Kong's immigration system remained larg ...
, which is authorised by Beijing to process Chinese nationality applications from Hong Kong residents. People of Chinese descent born in Hong Kong are permitted to hold
multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...
; however, applicants for naturalisation are required to