Olympic champion accused of milking gold medal

• Source: Global Times
• [03:45 April 12 2010]
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By Huang Jingjing

A Chinese Winter Olympics champion who won accolades for her outspokenness and filial piety is finding that the glitter on her gold medal is fading a bit.

She was rewarded about 5 million yuan ($732,718), including a new apartment after she returned to China but she apparently went too far when she reminded a Party secretary that they owe her one more thing.

"My parents are still out of jobs," Zhou Yang, 19, from Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, told local authorities during a chat prior to a public celebration of her Olympic achievement.

Zhou made the comment after the city's Party secretary asked her, "What more can we do for you?"

During the games in February, Zhou won gold during the women's short track speed skating 1,500 meters. She also helped the Chinese team win the women's 3,000 meters relay. She became the province's first Winter Olympic champion.

The gold medallist received awards that totaled about 5 million yuan from the State, the province and the city plus some other institutions. She got a 94-square-meter apartment worth about 300,000 yuan ($43,947) from the local government, the China National Radio reported last week.

Zhou's comments after the award ceremony moved many people.

Zhou said that she was grateful to her parents and she was confident that her accomplishment at the games would make life better for her parents.

Zhou's parents are both laid-off workers. Her mother sells handmade sweaters and her father runs a small welfare lottery station at their home. Each month, they take home about 1,000 yuan ($146).