Encashing Medals from the 16th Asian Games

Quest for Medals in Guangzhou 2010

 We've read glowing reports of the opening ceremony of the 16th Asian Games at Guangzhou, China on 12th November, particularly about the spectacular Pearl River Parade where thousands of Chinese citizens participated in the "festival of harmony" that saw athletes and officials from the participating countries boarding boats and sailing down the Pearl River into the city. Some accounts say this was just as grandiose and unforgettable as the Beijing Olympics opening rites.

Thai Golds, 21 November.

The Games will end on Saturday, 27th November with the usual closing rituals. What keeps us flipping to the sports pages of our daily newspaper is the medals count for the Philippines, which we don't want to see in the tail-end, and Singapore, which has high cash-for-medal incentives for its athletes. We read somewhere that medalists among the Team Philippines delegates would also be richly rewarded, but we haven't seen the cash equivalents of gold, silver and bronze medals.

The latest official top ten medal tally is headed by China as expected (299 total, 48 golds) followed by South Korea (166, 57), Japan (150, 30), Iran (32, 10), Hongkong (32, 8), Chinese Taipei (45, 7), Thailand (36, 7), Malaysia (23, 6), India (34, 5) and DPR Korea (25, 5). Singapore is 13th with 16 medals, 4 of them gold; and the Philippines is 16th with 12 total and 2 golds.

Iranian Gold Harvest, 22 November.

The Waspada of Indonesia and the Sunday Times of Singapore front-paged their gold medal harvests last Sunday. The Iran Daily yesterday beamed proudly that their athletes amassed 10 gold medals in 10 days. The India papers though have yet to flaunt their victories in the front pages just like what they did during the Commonwealth Games recently held there. The Philippine meager medals harvest are tucked in the inside pages.

Indonesian Golds, 21 November.

Big Shots when they return to Singapore.

We can imagine the thrill in the faces of the Singaporean medalists because of the cash bounties awaiting them upon their return. In the recent Commonwealth Games, the Singaporean athletes who brought home gold, silver and bronze medals became "big shots" from the Singapore National Olympic Council’s Multi-Million Dollar Awards Programme with cash rewards from ToteBoard and Singapore Pools for medal winners at Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and SEA Games.

The said awards programme follows this scheme: 

• Commonwealth Games.  Individual: Gold ($80,000, second gold is $40,000), silver ($40,000), bronze ($20,000). Team: Gold ($120,000), silver ($60,000), bronze ($30,000)

• SEA Games.  Individual: Gold ($10,000, second and third gold $5,000), silver and bronze (nil). Team: Gold ($15,000), silver and bronze (nil)

• Asian Games: Individual: Gold ($200,000, 2nd Gold is $70,000), silver ($100,000), bronze ($50,000). Team: Gold ($320,000), silver ($160,000), bronze ($80,000)

• Olympic Games. Individual: Gold ($1 million), silver ($500,000), bronze ($250,000). Team: Gold ($1.5 million), silver ($750,000), bronze ($375,000) 

There's a maximum limit though: "three individual gold medals won at SEA Games, up to two individual gold medals won at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, and the first gold medal won at the Olympics."

How to be a Millionaire in Singapore!

The Multi-Million Dollars Awards Programme can best be illustrated by the front page above of The Straits Times showing how much the medalists in the Commonwealth Games received when they arrived from New Delhi (31 total--11 gold, 11 silver, 9 bronze).

Just Compensation.

If we interpret this front page of the Taiwan Apple Daily correctly, Chinese Taipei may yet reward Yang Shu-Chun, their favorite bet for gold in taekwondo, with cash to compensate for her controversial disqualification in the Asian Games. Her match against her Vietnamese counterpart was halted apparently because extra sensors were found in the heel of her socks, and the match officials disqualified her. 

This sparked controversy with Taiwanese officials insisting the socks were pre-approved and the World Taekwondo Federation saying the extra sensors removed before the matched were fixed back on. It looks like Chinese Taipei would be suing the chief of the federation for this disqualification incident.

References:

1. The Official Website of the 16th Asian Games at http://www.gz2010.cn/en. 

2. Wong, Alicia. (2010, October 16). Is the Multi-Million Dollar Awards scheme fair for all?. Retrieved from FTP Fit to Post at http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/10/16/is-the-multi-million-dollar-awards-scheme-fair-for-all/