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Asian Olympic winners will get more than gold

SYDNEY — For many Asian athletes, winning gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games will also mean a small fortune.
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), yet to win an Olympic gold medal, will pay T$10 million (US$333,000) to any of its 65 athletes who get gold, and the same amount to the winner’s coach.

There will also be a payoff of T$6 million (US$200,000) for a silver, T$4 million (US$133,000) for a bronze and smaller prizes all the way down to a 10th placing in the Sydney Games, which run from 15 September to 1 October.

After earning a silver in table tennis at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Chinese Taipei’s Olympic officials hope to make a bigger payout in Sydney thanks to strong prospects in the debut sports taekwondo and women’s weightlifting.

‘It is generally believed we are strong in weightlifting and taekwondo. Prospects are quite good,’ Huang Ta-chou, president of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, told Reuters in Taipei recently.

China is aiming for 16 golds in Sydney, the same number it won in the Atlanta Games, and has offered 80,000 yuan (US$9,675) to each gold medallist, 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) for silver and 30,000 (US$3,600) for a bronze.

A private businessman is reported to have offered a $1 million yuan (US$120,950) mansion to the first individual gold winner from China.

Thailand’s Somluck Kamsing became an instant national hero and was given more than $1 million by the government and corporate backers after he won the featherweight boxing division at the Atlanta Games — his country’s first-ever gold medal.

Kamsing, now a Thai naval officer, will be in Sydney to defend his title, with the government offering 3 million baht ($75,000) to him and any other Thais who take home a gold.

One of the biggest prizes in Asia for winning gold is being offered by Singapore, whose Olympic officials admit they are unlikely to have to pay.

Anyone from Singapore winning gold would earn S$1 million (US$575,000), silver S$500,000 (US$287,500) and bronze S$250,000 (US$143,750).

‘We expect them to do their best, nothing more,’ Lau Teng Chuan, secretary-general of the Singapore National Olympic Council, said recently.

The Philippines is still looking for Olympic gold and have offered 7 million pesos (US$160,000) as an incentive — and hope that they will be paying off a taekwondo or boxing competitor.

Malaysia has an incentive programme that pays out 160,000 ringgit (US$42,100) to gold medallists.

Lee Lai-shan of Hong Kong, China won a gold in windsurfing at the Atlanta Games four years ago, the then-British colony’s first-ever Olympic medal.

Lee, Hong Kong’s only serious medal contender, is back to defend her title, and if she does would earn US$125,000 from the Chinese territory’s sports administrators.

Source: SOCOG