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Gold medal winners to get hefty bonuses

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-27 07:14

China's Olympic gold medalists will each get a tax-free bonus of 350,000 yuan ($51,000), almost double that paid out after the 2004 Athens Games, local media reported Tuesday.

The awards are 150,000 yuan more than those given to Chinese champions in Athens and a massive increase on the 6,000 yuan paid after the 1984 Los Angeles Games, at which China won 15 golds, the Beijing News reported yesterday, citing Xiao Shan, deputy head of the General Administration of Sports.

China won 51 golds, more than any other nation, at the Games. In some team events, such as the synchronized diving, each athlete on the team received a medal. Every medalist will be rewarded, Xiao said.

This amount, however, is a fraction of the cost of winning each medal.

The average government investment in each gold medal was around 15.7 million yuan a year, Liu Peng, the country's sports chief, said on Sunday.

The calculation is based on the 51 gold medals won in 2008 being the fruit of an annual government sports investment of 800 million yuan, he said.

China's unprecedented gold medal haul will not affect post-Olympics government spending on sports, Liu said.

The sports sector would be allocated 800 million yuan annually from sports-oriented lotteries, he said.

Bonuses for Olympian medal-winners are nothing new.

Greece plans to offer around 190,000 euros ($280,000) for Beijing Games gold medals, 130,000 euros for silver and 70,000 euros for bronze medals.

Kenya offers cash, a TV and a washing machine, according to media reports.