Date:27/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/27/stories/2008082756472000.htm

Sport

Cash bonus for Chinese gold medallists

Beijing: China’s Olympic gold medallists will each get a cash bonus of 350,000 yuan ($50,000), almost double the amount paid after the 2004 Athens Games, media reports said on Tuesday.

The cash rewards for gold medallists at the 2004 Athens Games was 200,000 yuan each, the Guangzhou Daily reported, citing Xiao Shan, deputy head of the General Administration of Sports as saying.

“That’s but a fraction of what it cost to win each medal,” Liu Peng, country’s sports chief, said on Sunday.

The average government investment in each gold medal was about 15.7 million yuan a year.

Liu also said the sports sector would get another 800 million yuan each year from sports-oriented lotteries, although 60 per cent of that would go for facilities for the general public, especially farmers. — PTI