The Hong Kong Sports Association for the Mentally Handicapped aims to develop, promote and organise sports activities for persons with intellectual disability to fully develop their potential in sports abilities, to cultivate positive attitudes in sportsmanship and to facilitate their integration into the community. The association provides sports training and competitions for more than 25 000 persons, and through the years has been steadily developing a training program from the grass roots to an elite level.

Athletes took part in numerous international competitions during the year and made the most of these opportunities to polish their skills. Highlights of 2004 would be the first ever Jockey Club 3rd INAS-FID World Swimming Championships in Hong Kong in January. Hong Kong achieved three silver and eight bronze medals in the competition. Hong Kong teams also toured Bollnas, Sweden to take part in the 2004 INAS-FID Global Games in July where they grabbed seven gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

Among the other competitions in which athletes competed successfully were the Special Olympics East Asia Snowshoeing Competition, 2004 Special Olympics Nippon National Winter Games, World Indoor Athletics Championships, 2004 Special Olympics East Asia and Asian Zone Regional Bocce Competition, Special Olympics Regional Table Tennis Competition, FISA World Rowing Senior & Junior Championships, and Macao-Hong Kong for the Intellectual Disability and Badminton/Table Tennis Reunification Cup. A total of 108 medals, with 32 gold, 41 silver and 35 bronze were won by Hong Kong paramedic athletes during the year.