The sweaty shoe badminton gold medalist Lin Dan was wearing during his final match could be worth a small fortune.

A local newspaper reports that the smelly soles of 'Super Dan' could be worth as much as 500,000 yuan ($72,832).

Lin Dan of China returns a shot against Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the men's badminton singles final of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing on August 17, 2008. Lin beat Lee 21-12, 21-8 to win the gold medal. [Agencies]

Lin was greeted by thunderous applause after his convincing rout on Sunday. To show his appreciation, Lin took off his shoes and threw them along with a racket into the roaring crowd of spectators.

The lucky fan who grabbed the goods was a hot topic of conversation among Lin's die-hard fans online and off.

An online search by a Beijing newspaper yielded a surprising result: more than 100 people claimed to be the lucky ones. A keyword search ("Lin Dan's shoes") on Baidu, China's popular search engine, resulted in a staggering 440,000 hits.

One poster in Lin's online forum reads: "I was cheering for Lin last night, and I have Lin's right foot shoe now." Others questioned the authenticity of his claim: "So long as you have the shoe, why not post a picture to convince us."

Another poster gives specifics about how Lin's shoe fell on top of his head. The poster is offering 100,000 yuan for the other show, which is sill at large.

Other deep-pocketed fans soon dwarfed his offering price. The heftiest offer now stands at half a million yuan, enough to buy an apartment in most Chinese cities.