After huffing and puffing for 1 hour, with practically the whole nation watching on the edge of their seats, Lee Chong Wei defeated Kim Hyun Il 21-18, 13-21, 21-13 in the semis and is guaranteed at least a silver medal.
Therefore, he’ll be only the sixth Malaysian who’ve ever won an Olympic medal, after Razif and Jalani Sidek (1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medallist), Cheah Soon Kit & Yap Kim Hock (1996 Atlanta Olympics silver medallist) and Rashid Sidek (1996 Atlanta Olympics bronze medallist).
As special as it is earning an Olympic medal, there are the monetary rewards too.
As mentioned back in June by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Malaysian gold medal winners will get RM1 million “incentive.” It used to be RM160,000.
For teams sports, players of a winning team would get at least RM150,000 each.
Apart from the one-time payment, and presumably a barrage of other awards like Datukships, land and more money from others, gold medal winners would also get a monthly pension of RM5,000. It used to be RM3,000 per month.
He explained that the huge jump is justified because:
to win a gold medal is not easy because the competition is getting tougher. We can see that from one Olympics to another, the standard is increasing. We should therefore set a higher target, and provide a more attractive incentive.
In fact, other countries have even bigger incentives, like Singapore who offers S$1 million (>RM2 million) to gold medallists.
Lesser medal winners should not fret either.
Source
Silver medallists will get RM300,000 one time, and RM3,000 per month.
Bronze medallists will get RM100,000, and RM2,000 per month.
