Olympics: Hefty rewards for Malaysian medal winner in Beijing

PUTRAJAYA: A Malaysian medal winner in the Beijing Olympics this August is set to be rewarded handsomely.

Besides a rise in the amount provided under the Olympic incentive scheme, the Malaysian medallist can look forward to getting a monthly salary on top of the allowance scheme he is already getting from the National Sports Council (NSC).

Top priority: Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob will meet Tan Boon Heong (left) and Koo Kien Keat next month.

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced this after chairing his first Olympic steering committee meeting at Putrajaya yesterday.

Others who attended the meeting were NSC director general Datuk Zolkples Embong, National Sports Institute director general Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz and Datuk Ho Koh Chye, the chef-de-mission of the contingent to the Beijing Games.

The Olympic steering committee also agreed to propose that the monthly pension scheme for Malaysian medallists in the Olympics be raised accordingly.

The pension scheme that takes effect after the athlete retires currently awards RM3,500 for a gold, RM1,500 for a silver and RM1,000 for a bronze.

Under the current NSC incentive scheme, an Olympic gold is worth RM160,000 while it is RM80,000 for a silver and RM40,000 for a bronze.

But the revised scheme to be proposed could see the Malaysian who wins an Olympic medal getting a much higher sum than the current amount.

“The steering committee have agreed to raise the current incentive scheme for the Olympic medallists. It is too low compared to what some countries are giving and we will also revise the pension scheme.

“We also agreed to a proposal to give a salary to the Malaysian who delivers an Olympic medal. We want to recognise the efforts of the athlete and we also hope future athletes will be inspired to strive for similar success.

“We want them to see there is a future in sports,” said Ismail, adding that the proposals would be recommended to the Cabinet Committee of Sports chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

While Ismail did not reveal the amount of monthly salary to be given, an Olympic medallist should be expecting a reasonable amount considering that an athlete who qualifies for the Olympics currently gets an extra monthly allowance of RM1,000 until August.

As an example, diver Bryan Nickson has been receiving an additional RM1,000 since he made the cut from the World Championships in March last year.

There is also a RM5,000 incentive for any Malaysian athlete who qualifies for the Beijing Olympics.

“The NSC have been allocated a budget of RM9mil towards the preparations of athletes involved in the Olympic qualification campaign,” said Ismail.

Badminton is still seen as the country’s best bet of winning an Olympic medal but archery and cycling also stand an outside chance to surprise.

“Only badminton has provided us with medals in the Olympics and they are our main hope.

“Archery has improved and we are currently ranked seventh in the world. We have not set any target but anything can happen in the sport,” said Ismail, adding that a medal earned in Beijing would be a success after finishing empty-handed in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).

Malaysia have won medals from badminton through Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock (silver) and Rashid Sidek (bronze) in Atlanta in 1996 and Razif-Jalani Sidek (bronze) in Barcelona in 1992.

For Ismail, he will be meeting the Beijing-bound athletes face to face next month – starting with the badminton men’s doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong who have been struggling with their game of late.

Star