圣诞老人运动会 香港选手放异彩

In a frosty town in Sweden, about 8,000 kilometers from their subtropical home, Hong Kong's Santas have emerged as a red-suited force to be reckoned with. They eat porridge better than the world's top Santas. They ride a mechanical reindeer and push a sled with the best. For the past four years, Hong Kong entrants in the Santa Winter Games have finished in the medals.

在寒冷的瑞典小镇，来自约8,000公里之外的亚热带香港的圣诞老人成了一股不容小觑的“红色力量。在这里，他们比世界顶级圣诞老人更会喝粥，同时还与最优秀的“同行一起骑机械式驯鹿，一起推雪橇。过去四年，参加圣诞老人冬季运动会(Santa Winter Games)的香港选手从来没有空手而归。

The secret to the Hong Kong Santas' success is a combination of solid financial backing, strategic planning and a 10-day Santa boot camp. To practice for the sled-racing event, they imported a Swedish sled but added wheels to the runners to account for Hong Kong's lack of snow.

香港圣诞老人取得成功的秘诀就是雄厚的财力支持、完备的战略规划和一个为期10天的圣诞老人集训，缺一不可。为了练习雪橇比赛，他们专门进口了一个瑞典雪橇，但因为香港少雪，又给滑走部分加装了轮子。

The Santa Winter Games -- which pits competitors from around the globe in five events -- have been held in Gallivare, Sweden, since 2003.

圣诞老人冬季运动会从2003年起开始在瑞典耶利瓦勒(Gallivare)举办，每年吸引着全世界的圣诞老人前来参加五大项目的竞逐。

In 2009, Hong Kong's first-ever entrant, Santa Jim Chan, shocked spectators and the professional Santa community by taking the top spot in the competition. And since then, 'it's always more Santas from Hong Kong,' said Santa Winter Games organizer Mathias Svalenstrom.

2009年，首次参加该运动会的香港选手陈汉强一举夺冠，让观众和那些专业圣诞老人大跌眼镜。圣诞老人冬季运动会的组织者斯瓦伦斯特罗姆(Mathias Svalenstrom)说，此后在运动会上胜出的香港圣诞老人越来越多。

Christians make up only about 10% of Hong Kong's population, but Christmas is a big deal in the former British colony. Many Hong Kong residents treat the holiday as a family event, giving gifts and eating meals together much as they do on Lunar New Year a month or so later.

虽然基督徒仅占香港人口的10%左右，但圣诞节却在这个前英国殖民地城市有着非凡的意义。很多香港市民把圣诞节看作是举行家庭聚会的良机，全家人会在这一天互送礼物，吃团圆饭，就像过中国的农历春节一样。一般来说，圣诞节后差不多一个月就是春节。

Hong Kong's skyline is lighted up with a riot of green and red holiday displays. The city's tightly packed shopping districts, where storefront rents are among the highest in the world, are awash in Christmas displays and sales. Children visit shopping-mall Santas.

远远望去，香港的天际线被红色和绿色的装饰点亮，呈现出一派节日气氛。拥挤的购物区随处可见圣诞装饰和大减价。孩子们会到商场里（香港店面租金之高在全世界可谓数一数二）来看圣诞老人。

It's not surprising that in a city where real estate is a powerful force, the key backer of Hong Kong's Santas is its biggest property developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. Julia Fong, the company's assistant promotions manager, said she couldn't disclose the Santa-related budget but said it was 'very generous.'

在香港这样一个房地产为行业相当发达的城市，圣诞老人的主要赞助商是该市最大地产商新鸿基地产发展有限公司(Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.)，也就不足为奇。该公司品宣部经理助理Julia Fong说，她不能透露有关圣诞老人的具体预算，但数目“非常可观。

Each year, Hong Kong's Santa emissary to the Santa Winter Games, selected after a qualifier event at one of Sun Hung Kai's malls, participates in a 10-day boot camp to prepare for the big day. Training kicks off with a meeting with Hong Kong's Santa entrants from previous years to discuss tips on mastering the unfamiliar skills required to win the competition.

每年，参加圣诞老人冬季运动会的香港选手首先要参加在新鸿基某商场举办的资格赛，经过选拔后，入围者还要参加为期10天的集训，为运动会做准备。集训一开始，首先是前几年参加过运动会的圣诞老人聚在一起，讨论如何掌握不熟练的技能以赢得比赛。

'Previous Santas tell us the porridge in Sweden is very sticky and hot. . .it's much stickier than congee,' said Ms. Fong, referencing the rice porridge popular in Asia. The team adjusted its recipe accordingly. To prepare for the sack race, Santas jump around in empty rice bags.

Julia Fong说，以前参加过运动会的圣诞老人跟我们讲，瑞典的粥非常粘稠，而且很烫，比亚洲一般的米粥要稠很多。于是香港参赛团队就相应调整了自己的喝粥策略。而为了准备套袋赛跑，香港选手会把自己套在空米袋里到处蹦。

This year, Hong Kong's entrant was Ho Wing-Leong, a 59-kilogram, 21-year-old magician who goes by the name Santa Rainbow. Mr. Ho, who got his Santa start as a volunteer in homes for the elderly, wears a red suit decorated with the hearts and spades of playing cards and a hat resembling a crown with reindeer antlers.

今年，香港派出的选手是体重59公斤、年龄21岁的魔术师何永亮，他以“彩虹圣诞老人(Santa Rainbow)的身份报名参赛。何永亮最初扮圣诞老人是在养老院做志愿者的时候。他身穿带有扑克牌红桃和黑桃装饰的红衣服，戴着一顶好似皇冠的帽子，帽子上还有驯鹿角。

Brothers Raymond and Thomas Kwok, who control Sun Hung Kai, built Hong Kong's three tallest towers. The top floor of the third-highest is a church. They also constructed the world's first replica of Noah's ark built to biblical specifications, including 67 pairs of fiberglass animals. These days the two brothers are fighting corruption charges in Hong Kong.

新鸿基联席主席郭炳江和郭炳联兄弟建造了香港最高的三座摩天大楼。第三高大楼的顶层是一个教堂。他们还依照圣经中的描述建造了世界首个“挪亚方舟，其中包括67对用玻璃纤维制作的动物。目前两兄弟正在香港反对对自己的腐败指控。

Most countries send only their chosen Santa to the competition in Gallivare, a mining town of some 8,500 inhabitants located about 100 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. This year, the Hong Kong delegation included its three previous Santa competition entrants and a photographer who doubled as an English-language interpreter for the Cantonese speakers.

大部分国家都只是将自己选出的圣诞老人送去参加耶利瓦勒举行的运动会。这座采矿小镇位于北极圈以北约100公里的地方，有约8,500位居民。今年，香港代表团由此前圣诞老人冬季运动会的三位参赛者和一位摄影师组成，这位摄影师同时还为说粤语的香港代表团成员担任英语口译。

Mr. Ho said he was initially intimidated by the competitors, including Santas from the Netherlands, Estonia and Sweden, who looked as if 'they lived in a forest and had their own deer.' The solution was simply to 'work harder,' he said.

何永亮说，他最开始被一些参赛者吓住了，其中包括荷兰、爱沙尼亚和瑞典的参赛者，他们看起来就像是住在森林里，有自己的驯鹿。他说，我们的应对之法只是更加努力。

Hong Kong's delegation embraced the Swedish crowd, making balloon animals for the children, despite temperatures as low as minus-10 degrees Celsius. At one point the Hong Kong team got separated from the rest of the international Santa delegation because they were socializing in Gallivare's town square. 'For me that's a good thing, but for the schedule it's not,' said the contest organizer Mr. Svalenstrom, manager of the Gallivare Tourism Office.

尽管气温最低可达零下10摄氏度，香港代表团却仍与瑞典的人群积极互动，用气球为孩子们做出动物造型。曾有一度，香港代表团因为在耶利瓦勒的镇广场上与人群互动，脱离了其他国际圣诞老人代表团的队伍。大赛组织者、耶利瓦勒旅游办公室负责人斯瓦伦斯特罗姆说，对我来说是好事，但对日程来说可不是。

Paradise Yamamoto, Japan's Santa and the only other contestant from Asia, said the Hong Kong Santas' style stood out as very 'fancy, pop, flashy.'

日本圣诞老人山本(Paradise Yamamoto)是亚洲除香港之外的唯一一个参赛者。他说，香港的圣诞老人别具一格，构思非常奇特、抢眼、华丽。

'All the rest are pretty normal Santas. . .if you can say that,' Mr. Svalenstrom said.

斯瓦伦斯特罗姆说，其他的圣诞老人可以说都很传统。

Hong Kong's choice of a young, thin Santa, 'shows they were thinking about winning,' said Santa Paradise, who celebrated his 50th birthday at the arctic event. A rotund, older Santa wouldn't fare well in events that require you to run on ice or handle reindeer, he said. 'You feel like you're risking your life sometimes.'

山本说，香港选择了一位身材瘦削的年轻圣诞老人，这表明他们想获胜。他在此次运动会期间庆祝了自己的50岁生日。他说，一个年纪更大、矮胖的圣诞老人不会在冰上赛跑或驾驭驯鹿的比赛中有良好的表现。你有时感觉自己好像在拿生命冒险。

On game day, Santa Rainbow got off to a rough start in the reindeer riding contest. The mechanical beast bucked him off in a few seconds.

运动会开始后，何永亮开局不利，在骑驯鹿比赛中遇到麻烦。几秒钟后，他就被机械驯鹿摔到了地上。

But he quickly recovered. Mr. Ho won the porridge-eating contest in a dramatic photo finish. Besides practicing on Swedish-style porridge, he had studied a video from a previous competition of his Japanese rival, who has long dominated the event. 'Maybe I shouldn't have put it on YouTube,' Mr. Yamamoto said.

但他很快恢复过来。何永亮赢得了喝粥比赛的胜利，从比赛结束时的照片上看很是激动人心。除喝瑞典式粥加以练习外，他还观看了一直主导着这一赛事的日本对手此前的比赛视频。山本说，或许我不该把视频放到YouTube上。

Hong Kong's Santas pulled out all the stops in the Santa Karaoke competition, the final event and the only one in which the entire delegation was allowed to join its contestant.

香港的圣诞老人在圣诞老人卡拉OK比赛中使出浑身解数。这是最后一项比赛，也是唯一一项参赛者可以和自己的整个团队一起参与的比赛。

The team danced, played instruments and performed magic tricks at a frenetic pace while Santa Rainbow sang a collection of customized, sometimes nonsensical English and Cantonese verses to the tune of 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.' One line came out: 'Merry Christmas in your eye!'

香港代表团激情热舞、演奏乐器、表演魔术，同时何永亮伴着《红鼻子驯鹿鲁道夫》(Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)的音乐演唱了一系列改编过的、有时甚至无厘头的英文和粤语歌。有一句歌词是这样唱的：圣诞快乐在你眼！

Ultimately, Mr. Ho finished second, falling just shy of the gold, won by the Netherlands's Santa entrant for the second year in a row. Japan's Santa Paradise came in fourth.

最后，何永亮屈居第二。获得第一名的是荷兰圣诞老人，这也是他连续第二年夺魁。日本的圣诞老人获得第四名。

Sun Hung Kai's Ms. Fong attributed the repeat victory to reports of the Dutch rival's robust training regimen. 'He is really taking it very, very seriously,' she said.

新恒基的Fong认为，荷兰对手连续夺魁是因为据说他们的训练强度很高。她说，他真的非常重视这个比赛。