Newspaper Review (IV) Jian Da =)

(Adapted from http://www.straitstimes.com/) 22 November 2008

Section: Sports

Article: More for medalists

By: Jeanette Wang

Gist of the story:

Singapore's Beijing Paralympic medallists, received their monetary awards under the Athletes Achievement Awards (AAA) scheme at a celebratory party. Swimming champion Yip Pin Xiu got $200,000 while equestrian bronze medallist Laurentia Tan received $50,000, both getting twice the amount they had expected.

This, after the Tote Board yesterday announced increased funding for the Singapore National Paralympic Council's (SNPC) AAA, doubling the initial award amounts from those during the scheme's launch in January this year. Previously, a Paralympian's award was just 10 per cent of that for an able-bodied athlete. An Olympic gold medal is worth $1 million, while a Paralympic gold had been worth only $100,000.

'Maybe sometime in future, we will have equality with the able-bodied athletes, like in the West, where there is no discrimination,' said Tan, who has cerebral palsy and profound deafness. No amount of disparity, though, was going to stop Singapore's Beijing Paralympians from celebrating last night.

But will Paralympians ever have parity with able-bodied athletes?

Reflections:

Previously in the year, Eunic Olsen sparked in parliament why there was a large difference in rewarding Olympics or Paralympics sports athletes (monetary reward). Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Teo Ser Luk replied then that the element of competitiveness was the main factor causing the disparity in rewarding money to Olympics or Paralympics sports heroes.

Regardless of whether it is the Olympics games or the Paralympics games, our athletes had done us proud by showing the world that what were are capable off. Table tennis queens Li Jia Wei, Feng Tian Wei and Wang Yue gu had broken the nation’s 48 year Olympic medal drought with their superior performance. Like our Olympic heroes, Theresa Goh and Laurentia Tan won gold and two bronzes respectively in the Paralympics games. They donned our national colours to compete with the world’s best. But why does a Paralympic medal differ to an Olympic medal so much?

I would protest strongly that it is unfair to those Paralympics medallists as I believe the effort they had put in will not be lesser than our Olympic heroes. Theresa Goh and Laurentia Tan had to overcome external barriers to train in their respective sports. As they are disabled, they had difficulties too in finding a choice venue to train. It is quite disheartening to hear that our Paralympics queens are rewarded so much lesser than the Olympics heroes.

Is our society so realistic that they discriminate disabled athletes? Disabled athletes are also humans; rewarding them 20% of the prize money of what an Olympic medallist will get is quite unfair to them. I seriously hope that more could be done to reward disabled athletes. It may not be in terms of money, but could also be in terms of funding them to compete in more international competitions to gain experience or helping them to find coaches to train them for better and more outstanding results in the London 2012 Paralympics games.

BY: Chan jian da