Category — Malaysia

Cyclist Azilul Hasni Awang will be Malaysia’s flag bearer in Beijing. Azilul is currently the Asian cycling champ and is one of Malaysia’s legitimate Olympic medal contender. How much of a medal threat is he? Last month, he beat 2004 Athens Olympic double gold medalist Ryan Bayley and two-time Olympic medalist Shane Kelly during a cycling meet in Australia.

Malaysia related posts:
Yatching: Kevin Lim’s Road to Beijing
The Money Report: Malaysia’s Incentives for Olympic Medalists
Malaysian Athletes Bound for Beijing

Let’s include Malaysian Kevin Lim among the list of athletes who have some issues (okay, gripes) against their country’s sports officials. His unsure road to Beijing looks like this:

1. The Malaysian Yatching Association did not register anyone for the last yatching Olympic qualifying event held in Australia

2. Kevin, acting on his own, pleads with the organizers to accept his registration

3. He earns an Olympic slot when he placed 15th overall. In effect, Malaysia also earns a slot to the Olympics

4. He has been training for the Beijing Olympics ever since he qualified

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Earlier, we reported that Malaysia is giving a monthly allowance of RM1,000 (equivalent to US$318.557 according to this currency site) to its athletes who qualified for Beijing.

But does Malaysia give incentives to athletes who win an Olympic medal as Azerbaijan does? The answer is yes. This is the current incentive scheme according to Malaysia’s staronline:

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.

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.

However, expect Beijing medalists to receive higher amounts as sports officials recently agreed to raise the incentives since the current one is “too low compared to what some countries are giving”.

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To date, 20 Malaysian athletes from eight sport disciplines qualified for Beijing; another nine, from badminton, are “almost certain to make the grade”.

Malaysia is banking on its badminton shuttlers to end a 12-year Olympic medal drought.

Some of Malaysia’s Beijing-bound athletes include: national walker Yuan Yufang, women divers Leong Mun Yee, Pandelela Rinong and Elizabeth Jimie; men’s track cylists Azizul Hasni Awang, Mohd Edrus Yunus, Rizal Tisin and Junaidi Nasir; men’s rapid fire pistol shooter Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan; and cyclist Josiah Ng.

RELATED:
Malaysia Money Report
Former Olympians Displeased
The Olympic Torch in Malaysia

PHOTO CREDIT/INFO SOURCE: OCM Blog.

How much money do Olympians make? It depends on the allowance they receive from their government, their incentives when they win a medal, and whether they have sponsorships as well as financial support from private entities.

We mentioned earlier that Nader Al Masri gets financial support consisting of $100 per month from the Palestinian Athletics Federation.

Azerbaijan, as we stated here, allocated the following medal incentives to its athletes during the 2004 Athens Olympiad:

Gold: AZN 100,000 and NOC–AZN 50,000
Silver: AZN 50,000 and NOC AZN 30,000
Bronze: AZN 25,000 and AZN 20,000

Reports have it that these amounts will be increased in Beijing but we don’t know by how much. By the way, for those of you who must know, AZN 100,000 is equal to USD 120,700.06 according to this currency converter.

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