By Terrence Voon
Sports Reporter
tvoon@sph.com.sg

 

The Year of the Tiger could not have gotten off to a better start for Tao Li and Quah Ting Wen.

Singapore's top swimmers were presented with $40,000 each at Wednesday night's glitzy Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP) dinner, courtesy of their gold rush at the SEA Games in Laos.

Tao Li and Quah Ting Wen showing off their 'hongbao' -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

After deducting 20 per cent (the levy which ploughs back part of the cash incentive to their national sports association), each teenager went home with $32,000.

At a much more low-key event last month, the athletics association handed out its own "hongbaos" to its returning athletes from the SEA Games.

Among the recipients were Gary Yeo, Muhammad Elfi Mustapa, Lee Cheng Wei and Muhammad Amiruddin Jamal, the sprint quartet who streaked their way to an unexpected silver in the 4x100m men's relay, becoming the first Singapore relay team to go under the 40-second barrier.

Their reward? A princely sum of $200 each.

National 4x100m relay team (standing from left) Muhammad Amiruddin Jamal, Izwan Firdaus Hanif, Lee Cheng Wei, Gary Yeo, Poh Seng Song and Muhammad Elfi Mustapa (front). -- ST PHOTO: MOHD KHALID BABA

"I would have gotten more money if I had taken my IPPT instead," said one of the irate sprinters, referring to the Mindef cash incentive scheme for national servicemen who perform well in their annual physical fitness tests.

There was no joy for them at the MAP awards on Wednesday night, too. The awards, funded by the government and corporate sponsors, are only given to those for who strike gold at the SEA Games, or any medal at the Asian, Commonwealth or Olympic Games.

So why should we care?

The sprinters did not win a gold medal, and in all likelihood, never will. Their achievements, made at the Asean level, are easily eclipsed by Tao Li's exploits at the Asian Games and beyond.

But for the budding school sprinter who dreams of representing his country one day, and the parent whose child has shown an aptitude for running, a career which doles out $200 for a national record and a silver medal is just not worth the trouble.

To speak of sports and money in the same breath may be jarring for some, but let's get real.

Training gear, supplements, and air fares for overseas tournaments all cost money, and for cash-strapped associations like athletics who are unable to foot the whole bill, the athletes often end up paying out of their own pocket.

All this, while taking time off from work or studies to chase a non-existent pot of gold at the end of the sporting rainbow.

Money talks loudest in sports, so why not expand the parameters of success for athletes whose achievements do not fall under the banner of major Games?

Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, the bowling champion, received a trophy and some newspaper clippings for her World Cup win in 2008. Peter Gilchrist only has the pleasure of seeing his name in the record books for setting a new world mark for a billiards break in 2007. Ditto for the national football team, who reached the group stage of World Cup qualification for the first time, only to have their own stadium turned into "Anfield" during a friendly against Liverpool last year.

Surely world records, international triumphs and general history-making deserve some form of financial reward? Wasn't this what the athletes were groomed for in the first place?

Yes, ironing out the details of such a wide-ranging incentive scheme will be onerous, and some might say, over-generous.

But if we don't show our athletes the money, we might as well show them the door.