Max Maeder, a Singaporean kiteboarder, could win more than Olympic Gold this week. He may also be able to claim a payout of one million Singapore dollars ($753,579).

The Major Games Award Programme of Singapore (MAP) provides cash rewards to medal-winning athletes at Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Games, as well as South East Asian Games (SEA).

Joseph Schooling, a swimmer from Singapore's island-city state, won Olympic gold in 2016.

The Singapore National Olympic Council's (SNOC) website states that the largest award for a gold medal is a $1,000,000 (Singapore dollar), which will be given to an athlete who wins ONE gold medal in the Olympic Games.

Maeder, the Formula Kite world champion, has had a great start in Marseille. The 17-year old was in the second position on the leaderboard going into the medal finals of Thursday, just behind Slovenian Toni Vodisek.

Kiteboarding, billed as the fastest Olympic sport, made its Games debut in Marseille on Sunday. The foiling kitesailors tried to avoid wipeouts while they "sent it" around the race course.

Singapore's system presents the tax-deductible awards to athletes who win, and not national associations. The SNOC states that "it's mandatory" for athletes to give a percentage of their prize money to the association to help with future training and growth. $1 = 1.3271 Singapore Dollars (Reporting and editing by Clare Fallon; Alexander Smith)

(source: Reuters)