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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Singapore Pays Top Athletes Top Dollars


Looks like other countries are paying their athletes peanuts compared to what the foreign-born athletes in Singapore are getting.

Since Singapore rewards its athletes the most handsomely for winning medals in international sporting events, shouldn't it then attract the best athletes from around the world?
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The Multi-Million Dollar Awards Programme

For competitive athletes, the cost of training at elite levels requires an enormous financial investment over many years. Of all the athletes who dream of winning an Olympic medal, only a small percentage will find themselves on the podium at the Games.
The Singapore National Olympic Council in the 1990s, under the direction of then President Dr. Yeo Ning Hong, devised an incentive scheme to reward medal-winning athletes. The Multi-Million Dollar Awards Programme provides a cash payout to athletes who win gold medals at the Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and South East Asian Games.
The largest award is $1 million, payable to the athlete who claims a gold medal at the Olympic Games. The smallest is a $10,000 windfall for a gold medalist at the SEA Games. The value of the awards varies with the respective Games, with the Olympic Games providing significantly higher payouts. The awards also vary based on individual versus team events.
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China to reward top Olympians with US$51,000 each
AP - Tuesday, August 26, 2008
BEIJING - China's gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympics will be taking home cash along with their medals, state media reported Tuesday.

Each gold medalist will get 350,000 yuan (US$51,000) each, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Xiao Shan, the deputy head of China's General Administration of Sports.

The prize compares to the 200,000 yuan (US$29,000) handed out to gold medal winners after the 2004 Olympic games, the report said.

The report did not say if silver and bronze medalists were also to be rewarded. Phone calls to the press office of China's General Administration of Sports rang unanswered Tuesday.

China topped the gold-medal chart with 51 medals, a haul that was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988.

Overall, China won 100 medals in 25 different sports, including its first ever in sailing, beach volleyball and field hockey.

It was the first time since 1936 that a country other than the U.S. or the Soviet Union/Russia led the gold medal list. The U.S. trailed behind the Chinese in golds with 36.

It is not uncommon for countries to reward their medal-winning athletes to compensate them for the financial burden of training.

The United States has paid prize money to top Olympians for years. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, athletes were given US$25,000 for gold, US$15,000 for silver and US$10,000 for bronze.

Canadian athletes earned approximately US$20,000 for each gold medal, US$15,000 for each silver and US$10,000 for each bronze won at the Beijing games, the first time the country has rewarded its athletes.

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