China's Shi Tingmao (Left) dominates her competition to win gold in the women's 3 metre springboard event on Sunday, with teammate He Zi (Right) taking silver. [Photo/IC]

THE GOVERNMENT is paying China's gold medal winners at the Rio Olympics 200,000 yuan ($30,159), less than half the 500,000 yuan it paid the country's gold medal winners at the 2012 London Olympics. Beijing News commented on Wednesday:

The payments are not only material compensation for the sweat and tears the athletes have shed to win a medal, but also a carrot to encourage athletes to work hard to be the best. The less competitive in sports some countries are, the more they are willing to reward their athletes for winning an Olympic medal.

In the past, with the mindset of "gold medals above all else", all the nation's sports resources and facilities were devoted to winning Olympic medals.

Although this produced gold medal winners, it resulted in the poor development of grassroots sports.

The sizeable reductions in the payments to medal winners are a sign that the medals-above-all approach to sport is no longer paramount. The sports environment has been improving and developing, and there is now a broader perspective on sports development in China.

Also, although the medal payments have declined, the commercial rewards have grown, The performance of the national athletes at the Olympics is not representative of the overall level of sports participation and health condition of the entire country.

The goal of the sports strategy now has changed to realizing a genuinely physically strong nation. While expectations were high for another large gold medal haul at the Rio Olympics that has not materialized, but that is not because the official reward is no longer an incentive rather it is the result of a positive change in thinking.