Olympics Fever

For a country that swept in more than 20 Golds as of now, the women's table tennis finals to be held in 5 hours time may mean nothing much to China. Turning it back to Singapore, the entire nation is 'nationalized' into this single event that makes history by entering the finals and guaranteeing the Republic's only 2nd medal (and silver) since 48 years ago. Although there is bound to be some people who does not feel 'at home' since it's our foreign talents that rake in these successes, we need to understand that Singapore is not the only country with non-native athletes. Look at the 100m dash finals yesterday. And you only see one colour -- black, even from Netherlands.

So long as a talent, foreign or not, is helping Singapore, we need to recognize them as one of us. That's my take. And probably Money Economics helps, since the Singapore Sports Council has generously announced S$750,000 for a Silver Olympics medal and S$1.5 million for a Gold medal. Comparatively, Michael Phelps, after making history winning by 8 medals only got US$1m bonus from his sponsor Speedo for matching his predecessor Spitz 7 medals record and US$670,000 in bonuses from the US Olympic Committee and USA Swimming. Should he had played for Singapore and won 8 Gold medals, that work out to S$12 million in bonuses!