Singapore: Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew who originally received zero dollars from winning the men’s singles title at the 2021 BWF World Championships because the tournament offered no prize money, could be on his way to becoming a millionaire soon.
Loh became the first Singaporean and the first unseeded men’s singles player to win the BWF Championships title when he defeated Kidambi Srikanth of India 21-15, 22-20 in the men’s singles World Championships final.
A Singaporean badminton fan has created a crowdfunding site to raise money for Loh on Jan 2, 2022. As of 8 am, Jan 13, 2022, the crowdfunding site has raised a total of S$366,359.00 (including S$200k from the Karim Family) from 711 donors and the donations are still coming in for the reigning World Champion.
On Wednesday, The Straits Times reported that a wealthy Indonesian businessman, Bachtiar Karim, and his wife, Dewi Sukwantoand have decided to award Loh S$200,000 through their foundation – the Karim Family Foundation, for Loh’s achievement and also encouraged the 24-year-old to try to win a medal at the 2024 Parias Olympics.
The generosity of the Karim Family Foundation has pushed Loh’s cash reward to over S$490k. Let’s do some math here.
So, Loh had raised S$166,359 through the crowdfunding site, a S$200,000 donation from the Karim Family Foundation, and another S$130,000 from local business leaders, Singapore Badminton Association (SBA), and the badminton equipment sponsor Li-Ning. These cash rewards are currently added up to S$496,359.00.
Furthermore, SBA is working on a multi-year, six-figure sponsorship deal for Loh. Once the deal is finalized, Loh is very likely of becoming a millionaire badminton player in Singapore.
Loh who is competing at the 2022 India Open in New Delhi, survived a scare against Canadian Sheng Xiaodong in his opening match of the 2022 India Open on Tuesday, beating Sheng in rubber-set, 16-21, 21-4, 21-13 in 50 minutes.
For those who are interested in chipping into Loh’s online crowdfunding initiative, please click on the link below:
