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BEIJING — Canoeists are not exactly the glamour athletes of China's Olympic team. Their sport is one of the most obscure in the country. But if they manage to add to China's gold-medal harvest this week, they will be rewarded with instant wealth.
One of Beijing's biggest breweries - located just down the road from the Olympic canoe/kayak basin - is pledging a cash bonus of $150,000 to any Chinese canoeist who wins gold at the Olympics. Any silver or bronze medalists will get bonuses of about $75,000 or $30,000.
In addition to these prizes, more bonuses could be showered on the medalists from various governments, corporate sponsors and private businesses. The potential bonanza would be the biggest that China's little-known canoeists have ever received.
The prize from the beer company is just one example of how China's Olympians are cashing in on the booming economy and the fast-growing resources of Chinese governments. Its medal-winning athletes will be the best rewarded in the country's history. Sports has become a big business in China in recent years, especially because of the rise of celebrity culture in this nominally Communist country. And of all the sports that have gained popularity in China in recent years - including soccer and basketball - the Olympics is by far the biggest phenomenon in the country this year.
China's elite athletes, including Yao Ming of basketball and Liu Xiang of hurdling, have already been rewarded with multimillion-dollar contracts from advertisers and corporate sponsors.
Even after withdrawing from the Olympics because of an injury this week, Mr. Liu managed to retain all of his corporate sponsorships, which earned him an estimated $24-million last year. He is one of the most famous faces on Chinese television and billboards, thanks to his advertising deals with Coca-Cola, Nike, Cadillac, Visa, and more than a dozen Chinese companies. They have all pledged to keep supporting him, despite his shocking pullout from the Games on Monday.
Mr. Yao is even wealthier than the famous hurdler, with an income of about $57-million last year, according to an estimate by Forbes magazine.
China's richest female athlete is diving champion Guo Jingjing, who has won two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. She has endorsement deals with dozens of companies, including McDonald's, Toshiba and Avon, and her annual income is estimated at more than $2-million.
This huge flow of money is a dramatic change from the 1980s, when China's first Olympic champion was rewarded with a monthly salary increase of 48 yuan (worth about $7 at today's exchange rate).
When Xu Haifeng captured China's first-ever gold medal by winning the men's free pistol event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the government gave him a bonus of 9,000 yuan (about $1,400).
In comparison, the first Chinese champion of this year's Games was Chen Xiexia, a weightlifter from the southern province of Guangdong. The Chinese news media estimates that she will receive bonuses of five million yuan (about $770,000).
The average Chinese gold-medal winner this month will receive about three million yuan (about $460,000) in prizes and bonuses, according to an article in Titan Sports, a Chinese sports newspaper.
Even the least-known Chinese medal winners are cashing in. The Bank of East Asia, a leading bank in Hong Kong, is awarding about $44,000 to every gold medalist on China's national fencing team.
