The Next 5 Years: Compete at the Highest Level
My primary goal for the next five years is to become a professional track and field athlete and represent Hong Kong on the international stage. I have already begun that journey — with a personal best of 7.25 meters in the long jump and a competitive career that continues to develop, I believe a professional standard is within reach. My goal is to qualify for and compete at the Asian Games and, ultimately, the Olympic Games under the Hong Kong flag. This is not a fantasy — it is a structured target that I am actively training, studying, and sacrificing toward every single day.
Step 1: Graduate from Rutgers (2027) Finishing my Exercise Science degree is non-negotiable. It is not just an academic achievement. It reflects the discipline and work ethic I bring to everything I do. Completing my degree gives me the scientific foundation to train smarter, recover better, and extend my athletic career. I plan to graduate in May 2027 while continuing to compete and train with Next Level Athletic Club in New Jersey.
Step 2: Pursue Professional Athletic Status (2027–2028). Upon graduation, I will fully commit to my athletic career. This means securing a training environment with elite coaching, strategically managing my competitive schedule, and pursuing sponsorship or funding opportunities that allow me to train without compromise. I will target national-level competitions that allow me to represent Hong Kong internationally through World Athletics qualification pathways.
Step 3: Represent Hong Kong — Asian Games & Olympics (2028–2030) The 2030 Asian Games and the 2032 Olympic Games are my competitive targets. Representing Hong Kong has deep personal meaning to me. This is where I grew up, and carrying that flag on an international stage would be the fulfillment of a lifelong goal. I will pursue the necessary qualifying standards and work within the Hong Kong Athletics Association to secure my eligibility and selection.
World Athletics Profile:
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/jason-lau-15147422
The Next 10 Years: Build Something That Lasts
When my competitive career winds down, I do not plan to walk away from the sport — I plan to pour everything I have learned back into it. My 10-year vision is to return to Hong Kong and build a high-performance athletics facility or coaching organization, modeled after what I have experienced training and working in the United States. Hong Kong has enormous untapped potential in track and field, and I want to be the person who helps unlock it.
Step 4: Pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy (2030–2033) As my competitive career begins to wind down, I will channel my energy into graduate education and pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. My background as a competitive athlete, combined with my Exercise Science foundation and hands-on experience as a physical therapy aide, makes this a natural progression. My focus will be on sports rehabilitation, specifically working with track and field athletes and understanding the biomechanics of jumping events at a clinical level. A DPT not only deepens my expertise but gives my future facility the medical credibility to serve athletes at the highest level.
Step 5: Establish a Performance Center in Hong Kong (2033–2035) With my clinical training complete and my competitive experience behind me, I will return to Hong Kong to build something lasting. Drawing on the business planning and facility management knowledge I have been developing — including the JUMPgle concept I designed as a model for a hybrid performance and rehab facility in Tseung Kwan O — I intend to open my own center. This facility will integrate elite coaching methodology with sports rehabilitation under one roof, serving college-age athletes and high school prospects with a long-term mission of producing Olympic-caliber talent from Hong Kong. It will be the kind of place I wished had existed when I was coming up.
A concept render of JUMPgle — a Sport Performance Lab & Rehab Center designed for Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong. This facility concept represents my long-term vision of bringing elite, accessible athletic development back to the city that shaped me.
Reality Check: Plan B
I am honest with myself about the demands of a professional athletic career. The margins are slim, the window is short, and life does not always follow a straight line. If the professional athletic path does not materialize at the level I am targeting, my Plan B will be to pursue safer paths.
First, I would pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, specializing in sports rehabilitation and working with high-performance athletes. Second, I would grow my personal training career, potentially building a private coaching business. Third, I would fully lean into track and field coaching at the club or collegiate level, channeling my competitive experience to develop the next generation of athletes. In all three scenarios, the destination is the same: I am in the room where athletes are developed, recovered, and pushed to be their best. The title on the door may change — the mission doesn't.
I have the grades, the experience, and the connections to pursue every one of these paths. What I have most, though, is the clarity to know exactly why I'm doing this — and that, more than anything, is what will carry me through.