Zhou Yang 周洋

After winning the gold medal in the short-track speed skating event at the 2010 Winter Olympics on Feb 21st, Zhou Yang 周洋received wide-spread acclaim and started accumulating a considerable reward for her gold. So how much exactly is that reward?

Normally money rewards for Olympic champions are offered by several ranks of government institutes including: State Sports General Administration, provincial government affiliated with the athlete, affiliated municipal government and town government, etc.

For example, in 2008 when Wang Hao王皓 had won gold at the Beijing Olympics, Jilin provincial government awarded him a total of about 1.2 million RMB; Changchun municipal government awarded him another 1 million RMB (which included rewards for another silver medal Wang Hao had gotten at the Summer Olympics). Of course cash-rewards for gold in the Winter Olympics are not going to be as generous as they had been at the Summer Olympics, but still Zhou Yang's gold had prime weight because it had brought a rare, first-time honor in a sports event that China had not won gold before. So following this type of logic, her gold isn't going to be worth too much less than Wang Hao's – 2 million from both the provincial and municipal governments plus town government cash reward, Zhou could easily get past that 2 million mark.

In 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalists had each received 350,000 RMB from the State Sports General Administration for their gold. And in addition to the cash reward, each gold medalist had also received a car worth 200,000 RMB from sponsors. Cash rewards from the government and gifts from sponsors and companies are all considered non-taxable income. So calculating in gifts from sponsors, Zhou's gold could easily be worth 2.55 million RMB.

If Zhou Yang should be able to snatch gold in the 3000 meter relay, even as a group gold, she could definitely get another 1.25 million added to her total stash – making it 3.8 million. And if she should be so lucky as to get a personal gold in the 1000 meter event, Zhou could have cashed in a grand total of 4 million RMB for her three golds during this year’s Winter Olympics.

Source: sohu.com

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Shen, Zhao Claim China's First Figure Skating Gold

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