What is the value of a gold medal? It depends on where you live.
If there was a medal for the country that promised the most money for a gold medal, Singapore would win. If Michael Phelps were a Singaporean, he would have gone home with 5.75 million Singapore dollars or about 4 million US dollars.
Here is a list of countries which have promised monetary incentives for gold medals (all in US dollars):
Singapore – US$708,800 (equivalent to SGD 1 million. The SNOC also promised $1.5miillion for a team gold.)
Philippines – US$340,909
Malaysia – $307,000
Thailand – $300,000
UAE – $272,000
Russia – $100,000
Japan – $100,000
Bulgaria – $76,620 (100,000 leva)
Israel – $67,500 (NIS 240,000)
China – $51,000 (350,000 yuan)
Dominican Republic – $30,000
USA – $25,000
Australia – $20,000
Obviously promising folks money is one thing. Whether they will still represent you is another. If it was just money alone, Michael Phelps would be at the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) tomorrow applying for a passport.
I wonder if he would qualify.
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Conversation between ICA and Michael Phelps.
ICA: Name?
Phelps: Phelps. Michael Phelps.
ICA: Sound familiar leh. What you do, ah?
Phelps: Swim.
ICA: You want to apply for citizenship just because you can SWIM?
Phelps: Er…yes. I swim quite fast.
ICA: I also can swim. My breaststroke damn power. You can swim what stroke?
Phelps: Er…all the strokes.
ICA: Eh, you quite show-off type, hor. What else have you been doing?
Phelps: I just eat, sleep and swim. Have been doing so for the last four years.
ICA: Wah! Very shiok, like that! We don’t accept lazy people like you. Eat, sleep and swim only. I also can do. But, very important, let me ask you: CAN YOU PLAY PING-PONG?
I thought it was funny. Nice to see some self-irony here in Singapore.
It is not funny at all.
Please feel free to contribute your wit.
You have a bad sense of humour.
But Red Sports slower than Time lah. 🙂
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1833856,00.htm
Aiyah, why they so slow?
Better tell Jason to move faster. how can redsports be faster than the wall street journal?!?
This issue was picked up by the Wall St Journal today too.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928409828059039.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Hey PS, yeah true. Singapore national athletes don’t tend to get picked up for endorsements on a global or even regional scale scale.
Vivian – really? Interesting to see if happens. In any case, it’s insurance money. There is no pot of cash set aside. They just buy insurance in all probability. I wonder which insurance company is the one crying now…
hi les, i think after this year, they will revised DOWNWARDS the monetary incentive…..
ha ha! I think it is actually quite comparable in all countries if we factor in the size of the various Olympic contingents + the chances of getting gold. Its all a game of probability in my opinion. 🙂 Moreover, Singapore’s athletes are relatively poorly paid (in terms of their monthly salary and endorsements received), so it all balances up.
You left out the huge commercial benefits & sponsorships associated with Olympics athletes in the USA. That will push the monetary incentives into stratosphere. 🙂
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_33/b4096036820255.htm?chan=magazine+channel_special+report
Oh yeah, that’s right. Let me recalculate. Paiseh.
I thought relay races have a different rate? it’s 1.5million for the team right? So phelps would have got 375k each for the 3 relay medals that he got.