Joseph Schooling who is an athlete at the University of Texas is bound by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules, which prohibits student-athletes from receiving cash rewards. But there is a loophole around it and Schooling will take advantage of it to receive a cool $1 million from the Singapore Government.
USA Today reported: “The exception allows athletes to keep money from their country’s national Olympic governing body based on their finish in one event per year that is designated as the highest level of international competition for the year by the governing body. For American athletes, this works under the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Operation Gold program.”
The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) in the 1990s, under the direction of then President Dr. Yeo Ning Hong, devised an incentive scheme to reward medal-winning athletes. The Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP) provides a cash payout to athletes who win medals at the Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and South East Asian (SEA) Games.
The largest gold medal award is $1 million, payable to the athlete who claims an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.
The Tote Board/Singapore Pools (Pte) Ltd is the primary sponsor of the SNOC MAP awards.