KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — The country’s top men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik were awarded RM100,000 each under the Sports Victory Prize Scheme (Shakam) incentive, in recognition of their bronze medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said the government, via the National Sports Council (MSN), decided to double the reward to RM100,000 each, compared to the RM50,000 awarded after their bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
“Both of them fought equally hard. For now, we treat this as case by case first (giving RM100,000 each) This is the second time they have brought a medal (Olympic Games) for the country so we believe it is right to give them RM100,000 each,” she said during the Olympic medallists' car handover ceremony today.
Earlier, Chia and Soh, together with professional men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia, were each presented with a sports utility vehicle by Chery Malaysia following their success in Paris.
Yeoh also confirmed that Lee, who also delivered a bronze in Paris, would also enjoy RM100,000 under Shakam as well as a lifetime pension of RM2,000 per month under MSN's Permanent Olympics Incentive Scheme.
On top of that, Lee, who was previously awarded RM50,000 before the 2024 Paris Games, will receive an additional RM100,000 from MSN, which he can claim to cover his expenses leading up to the Olympics.
In Paris 2024, Chia-Soh defended their Olympic bronze medal after beating Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 16-21, 22-20, 21-19, while Lee clinched his bronze medal after overcoming Lashya Sen of India 13-21, 21-16, 21-11.
Meanwhile, Soh expressed surprise at the announcement of the RM100,000 reward from MSN.
“Before this RM50,000 but now RM100,000. We really appreciate what the minister (Yeoh) did until Paris, supporting us, and she knows how we fought for the country,” he said.
The 26-year-old also hoped the reward would boost them to perform much better in future tournaments including the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles with the main focus of challenging the world’s top pair from China, Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang.
Based on the head-to-head record, Chia-Soh had a poor record against Wei Keng-Wang Chang, losing eight out of 10 matches they played before.
— Bernama
