The government were so quick to congratulate him when he won. Yet there’s no prize money waiting for him, unlike Olympic medalists.
Government Not Awarding Prize Money For Loh Kean Yew’s Historic Win
Just last week, Loh Kean Yew made his way to the podium at the 2021 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships in Spain. This is a historic win, the first ever for Singapore. When he won, politicians were congratulating him for his victory.
Yet they were no where to be seen before that. His historic match wasn’t even broadcasted on local TV channels.
There’s also no prize money waiting for him.
The Major Games Award Programme provides a cash payout to athletes who win medals at the Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and SEA Games. The Olympic gold medal award is $1 million.
The BWF is unfortunately in neither of the above categories. This means that Loh Kean Yew will not be getting a single cent from the government.
Business leaders come together to set up a fund of S$50,000 for Loh Kean Yew
After learning that Loh will not be receiving any prize money for his win, managing director of Pine Garden’s Cake Wei Chan decided to set up a fund. He is a badminton enthusiast himself, and he hoped that this fund would motivate Loh in his pursuits.
He then reached out to 4 other business leaders who had interest in the sport. They collectively raised S$50,000, which they hoped will be an encouragement to Loh.
The business leaders who contributed to the fund are:
- Ang Kiam Meng, executive director and group chief executive officer (CEO) of Jumbo Group
- Daryl Neo, co-founder and CEO of DC Frontiers
- Dora Hoan, group CEO and co-chairman of Best World International
- Eugene Ang, managing director of JK Technology
- Wei Chan, managing director of Pine Garden’s Cake
Government was bullshitting when they said they will support our sportsmen
The BWF World Championships is the biggest competition for badminton. It is even recognized by the Olympics. So how can our government be so biased and not reward such a great accomplishment? Instead they have to wait for Singaporeans to support ourselves and our people. Useless government!
This is utterly disgusting & shameful that our own government does shit for our own sports people that have reached the pinnacle of their sporting achievement on a global scale. Mr Edwin Tong the minister of sports …spends more on fixing their political opponents than looking into the welfare of sports people that have done the nation proud.Really no sense of priority !
This article is bullshit.
Loh kean yew was already on a spex scholarship, which pays between 1.2k to 8.4k a month, depending on performance. He is likely to be in the middle range. Plus he has full support of sport singapore with all training resources. He is highly likely to get the full 90k next year.
Saying that the government did not support him fails to even conduct some basic research into what athletes get in singapore.
Prize money for competitions are already clearly spelt out. Other athletes do not get paid by their national federations for winning things like diamond league, fina championships. Its their job, and those competitions already have prize money.
I understand BWF also did not award any prize money to the finalist. Am I right ?
don’t worry, govt will reward him with medals, certificates, etc.
only cronies get $$$$$$$$$