How much are Olympic medals worth?

LONDON Athletes competing in Olympics are not usually paid for their participation, but most competitors who come out on top are rewarded in cash by their national Olympic Committee. Most times, the real money is in promotional contracts: Some of the most stellar athletes bring in millions with marketing deals and endorsement.

After eight days of the summer Games we have seen athletes being distinguished the best of the best. Summer Olympians are breaking records and winning medals. You might think that the joy of winning a medal is enough, but a lot of athletes get an extra incentive: a lump sum of cash for their winning efforts.

One of the most outstanding endorsements so far is Qatar Telecommunication’s (Qtel) identification with Nasser Saleh al Attiyah’s bronze medal feat in the men’s skeet (rifle shooting) event. The company has promised to provide him with a special Shahry Line with unlimited SMS, mobile, internet, local and international calling for life.  

Though no confirmation of any financial reward from the Qatar Olympic Committee, one can be rest assured that for putting Qatar on the world map with its historic achievement, Qatar’s sporting excellence in rewarding its own will be monumental.

While we are still celebrating Nasser’s feat, not all countries participating in the Olympics offer cash reward. Athletes from the host nation, Great Britain, aren't getting any money for their efforts as the British Olympic Committee (BOC) believes that the medals and efforts are enough.

Gold medalist from Team GB at this year's home Olympics will be immortalised in the national memory.  According to Daily Mail, for Team GB stars the rewards are far less tangible. From the moment any take gold; the Royal Mail will begin designing a stamp bearing their image and deliver them to 500 post offices for sale the following day. The champions' stamps will be available in books of six for £3.60 or individually for 60p - to be immortalised forever among philatelists.

But for competitors from some other nations, prestige isn't the only thing driving them

For Americans a gold medal is worth $25,000. Silver and bronze are worth payouts of $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. The 29 medals won thus far have a total bonus value of $510,000. It’s a nice bonus for America’s unpaid athletes, though the payout values have not increased for a decade.

The United States is also far from the top of the payout list. The biggest medal bonus is offered by Italy, which will pay more than $182,000 for a gold medal. Russia’s medal rewards are also quite rich, and the nation’s gold medal winners will collect $135,000. The bronze medalists will take home $54, 400, more. Neighboring Ukraine has been considering an increase to its already rich payout scale: $100,000 for gold, $75,000 for silver and $50,000 for bronze.

African nation, Ghana has offered $20,000 for each gold medalist.

South Africa's Olympic body, Sascoc, will reward all medal winners competing in the London Olympic Games, having set aside R6-million ($721,542) for the stars of both the Olympics and Paralympics.

According to Sascoc, gold medallists will receive R400 000 ($48,000) and their coaches R100 000 ($12, 000. Olympic silver medallists will receive R200000 ($24,000) and their coaches R50000 ($6,000), whereas bronze medallists will be given R80000 ($9,600) and their coaches R20000 ($2,400).

In Armenia, its National Olympic Committee announced reward in cash for his/her medal hopefuls.

A gold medal will be worth $100,000; silver, $75,000; and bronze, $50,000.

National Olympic Committee president Gagik Tsarukyan has said he will personally pay $700,000 to any athlete who scores gold for Armenia.

Mexicans who wins a gold medal in individual event would receive 500,000 pesos (about $37,000); silver medal, 250,000 pesos ($18,000); and bronze medal, 125,000 pesos ($10,000).

Winning a gold medal in team sports would be awarded three million pesos (about $223,000); silver medal, two million pesos ($149,000); and bronze medal, one million pesos ($74,500).

In Malaysia, a gold medal could be worth more than $600,000. Andrew Kam, owner of a Kuala Lumpur gold mine, has offered a gold bar valued at two million Malaysian ringgit, or about $640,000, to any Malaysian badminton player able to win a gold medal. If multiple players take home gold, they will split the bar’s value.

Swimming Australia, which oversees the nation’s top swimmers, implemented a new funding deal this year that will pay more than $36,000 to gold medal winners in individual events; those involved with relays that win gold will share more than $63,000. Those payouts are in addition to the nation’s base medal bonuses, worth about $20,000 for gold, $13,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.

For Team Nigeria, its National Sports Commission promised to give N1.5 million ($100,000) to any athlete who wins a gold medal while silver and bronze medalists are to get N1,000,000 and N500,000 respectively. 

Nigerians flying to Malaysia face heightened drug screening

      
  LAGOS  Nigerian authorities have placed a red alert on all passengers flying to Malaysia because of an alarming surge in the number of suspected drug traffickers arrested on that route, an official statement said.
Nigeria's anti-drug agency NDLEA said its boss, Ahmadu Giade, took the measure due to "the increasing number of arrests made on the route and the need to prevent obstinate drug traffickers from smuggling drugs to Malaysia where drug offences attract capital punishment."
Giade appealed to airlines and passengers travelling to Malaysia to submit to intensified security screening.
"The increasing number of arrests on the Nigeria-Malaysia route is alarming. We must be prepared to make sacrifices in protecting the image of the country and prevent the execution of our nationals abroad on account of drug crimes," he said.
The figure of suspected drug traffickers travelling to Malaysia arrested at Lagos airport rose sharply from two last year to 21 so far this year, NDLEA spokesman Ofoyeju Mitchell said.
A 38-year-old South African woman, Nene Fikile Happy-girl, and a Nigerian, Onyemaechi Remigus Chibuzor, 29, were arrested last week at the Lagos international airport as they tried to board an Emirate flight to Malaysia.
They were found in possession of methamphetamine, the agency said.

Malaysian PM to stage house party for Manchester derby game

The Manchester derby match over the weekend in the English Premier League will have a new attraction as die-hard Man United fan Malaysian Prime Minister

is throwing open his home on Sunday for football fans to watch Manchester United take on Manchester City, in a rapport-building exercise ahead of expected elections.

Najib, a Manchester United supporter, sent out messages on Facebook and Twitter Wednesday to invite football-mad Malaysians to his official residence in the administrative capital of Putrajaya to watch the match.
"Having been to a few football viewing parties before... I decided it is high time for me to host my own session," he said.
"I'm looking forward to lepak (hang out) with more of my Facebook and Twitter friends," he added.
Officials said big-screen televisions and overhead projectors will telecast the match live at 9.30pm (1330 GMT) in the residence, to those who register their interest on the premier's website by Thursday.
It is the latest attempt to woo voters by Najib, who came to power in 2009 after his predecessor was forced to stand down following an electoral drubbing. The next polls are expected to be called sometime next year.
Najib has faced declining opinion poll numbers over the brutal quashing of a electoral reform rally in July, rising racial tensions in the multi-ethnic nation and an increasingly cloudy economic outlook.
Last month, the premier went on a charm offensive, appearing on radio talk shows and youth concerts in a bid to shore up support.
Both Manchester clubs, who will meet at Old Trafford Sunday, remain unbeaten this season and lead the race to top the Premier League.

Suspected Nigerian drug trafficker dies on flight to Malaysia

Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) say a 25-year-old Nigerian man smuggling methaphetamine on a Malaysia-bound flight died from ingesting a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of it.

The NDLEA released a statement on Saturday which says Chilaka Ogbonna Emmanuel's death forced the flight from Doha, Qatar, to make an emergency landing in India, where an autopsy was performed on Friday.

The NDLEA said Emmanuel had begun his journey at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Tuesday.

Drug traffickers often use Nigerians as mules to carry drugs from to Europe, the United States and other locations, though the drugs typically ingested are cocaine and heroin.

Two Nigerians arrested in Malaysia with cassavas

The long arm of the law caught up with two criminal minded Nigerians who flew into Malaysia on different days with the thought they could hoodwink the authorities by stuffing 9.46kg of syabu worth about 2 million Malaysian Ringgit into cassavas and sweet potatoes, but their plan was foiled by alert KL International Airport police.

Syabu is an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous and as an appetite suppressant.

One of the suspect was nabbed on Saturday and the other on Monday.

Selangor Narcotics CID chief Asst Comm Nordin Kadir said both Nigerians had cut open the cassavas and sweet potatoes and dug holes to store the drugs.

“A steel rod the size of a pencil was used to re-attach the root vegetables which they then covered with mud,” ACP Nordin said yesterday, adding that both carried the vegetables as hand luggage.

He said it was the first entry into the country for the 32-year-old suspect who was arrested at 3.45pm on Saturday. He had brought six cassavas with him.

“The other suspect, 31, who had visited Malaysia before, was arrested at 7.30am on Monday with three cassavas and two sweet potatoes,” he said.

ACP Nordin added that the police found 11 packets of syabu in the nine cassavas and two sweet potatoes.

The case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a death penalty

Two Nigerians get 18 years jail term

A district court in Denpasar, Bali in Indonesia sentenced two Nigerians, members of an international drug smuggling syndicate to 18 year jail sentences on Monday.

The Nigerian defendants, Austine Bosah Uchena, 39, and Michael Onyedika Onuorah, 24, must also pay fines of Rp 2 billion ($230,000) or face an additional two years behind bars.

The sentences were twice those demanded by the prosecution.

The pair were caught attempting to smuggle more than two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine into Bali’s Nugroho Rai International Airport from Malaysia on July 13 last year.

Other members of the syndicate are being tried separately.

They are Yakno, a Filipino, Band everly Adtoon Fulache and Enny Maliani who are Indonesian.

Two Nigerian student escapes deportation, Immigration officers probed

Two Nigerian student who are being deported for misusing their student visas in Malaysia escaped on Thursday morning after one of two Immigration officers who were escorting the Nigerians for deportation claimed seven unknown men had used forced to free the two when he had stopped the van carrying the men at a petrol station near the airport.

The two Immigration officers had been placed under immediate suspension pending investigations.

KLIA Immigration Depot director Datuk Mohmed Asri Yusof said the two Immigraiont officers had taken the Nigerians to the airport together with a Palestinian, who was also to be deported.

He said one of the officers then escorted the Palestinian into the airport at 12.15am to check his flight home while the Nigerians remained in the van with the other officer as their flights was only scheduled for 2.55am.

However when the first officer returned after seeing off the Palestinian he found that his colleague had driven the van, with the Nigerians still inside, to a Petronas station nearby, supposedly to purchase some drinks.

"Fifteen minutes later the second officer contacted his colleague, who was still at the airport, to say he had been stopped by seven African men who had used force to free the two Nigerians before handcuffing him to the steering wheel," he told a press conference after attending the National Registration Department Innovation Day launch on Thursday.

The second officer lodged a police report on the incident at 1.30am while the first officer lodged his report at about 3.30am.

The two Nigerians, Solomon Udo Eneh and Osuji Chinedu, were being deported after they were found to have abused their student visas.

Yusof appealed to the public to report anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant to the police.

Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam told the same press conference that the ministry was keen to know how the two Nigerians, who were handcuffed, managed to escape.

The ministry, he said, also wanted to identify any weaknesses in the escorting procedures that might have led to the incident.

He said the ministry was currently also working on tightening the standard operating procedure in escorting, transporting and deporting foreigners.

"The Immigration Department's Flying Squad has launched a manhunt together with the police and I believe we will be able to find them," he said.