LONDON: The incentive scheme for national paralympians remains as it is now, said National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong.
“So far here has been no suggestions to change it. There has been many news news reports saying the Shakam incentive scheme governing rewards for national athletes differs for paralympians as compared to normal athletes and there is also no provision of pensions for paralympians.
“As for pensions for paralympians, the government has no plans as yet to introduce it for paralympians,” he told Bernama in clarifying on the reports, here Friday.
Zolkples is also the Chef-de-Mission of the Malaysian contingent to the London Paralympic Games.
Under the Shakam incentive scheme, gold medal winners at the Olympics will receive a one-off payment of RM1 million while silver and bronze medal winners receive RM300,000 and RM100,000 respectively.
They also receive lifetime pensions amounting to RM5,000 (gold medal winners), RM3,000 (silver) and RM2,000 (bronze).
On the other hand, the rewards for paralympians are RM300,000 (gold medal winners), RM200,000 (silver) and RM100,000 (bronze) respectively and without any pensions.
According to Zolkples, the current provisions for paralympians were based on International Paralympics Committee guidelines, besides categories not fixed for paralympic events making it difficult to follow the scheme for Olympians.
“Unlike the Beijing Paralympics, at the London Games we had many categories that were merged, particulary in athletics and swimming. There were events which merged three categories because of lack of participation.
“Compared to the Olympics, the Paralympics has too many events. In athletics alone there are 170 events, swimming 148, table-tennis 29 and cycling 50. Thus it is difficult to equate the Paralympics with the Olympics,” he said, adding that in Malaysia, since the NSC took over the training programmes for national paralympians since 2007, their welfare had been well looked after. –Bernama