Chinese world champ Xu Jiayu has donated about $10,000 of prize money he won on the FINA Champions Series to hospitals fighting the 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak.
That’s according to a social media post by Xu, picked up by a popular Chinese swimming fan account:
Xu Jiayu donated 70,000 RMB, won at Fina's Swim Series, to hospitals that are fighting coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/rMm7LZuSo7
— Chinese Swimming News and Results (@CHNswim_fan) February 3, 2020
The 70,000 Chinese Yuan noted in the post would equate to just over $10,000 in U.S. Dollars. That’s about a third of Xu’s earnings from the entire Champions Series. The backstroker won about $36,500 in prize money, according to our tallies, not counting the $6,000 he would have gotten in engagement fees for competing at both meets on the series.
Xu donated the money to hospitals working to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
A new strain of coronavirus has been causing respiratory illnesses in China, and cases have popped up around the world. The spread of the illness has caused quarantines and travel restrictions, as officials try to limit the spread of the virus. That’s already had several major impacts on the world of competitive aquatics.
The Chinese leg of the FINA Diving World Series was scheduled for March 6-8, but FINA has already cancelled the event, citing the coronavirus outbreak. Several other sports had Olympic qualifying events rescheduled. CHINADA has temporarily suspended its anti-doping testing for the sake of health protection. And in the United States, a college dual meet was canceled when Miami University tested two students for coronavirus.
Coronavirus
Such a class act!
Good for Xu! Where is Sun Yang? I am sure he is much richer than Xu.
He is busy right now taking advantage of Chinada”s testing moratorium.
Wada or fina can still brave it & go test .
Yes and he must let a Wuhan nurse with expired nurse junior certificate to draw his blood or BAN FOR LIFE.
haha~ he bought about 1000rmb food for the volunteers
There’s no rule saying rich people must donate.
He probably donated all his earnings because Chinese swimmer won’t get all the earnings as they were “raised” by the national team, thus he could only get part of the earnings.
Despite being world champion, swimming was not very popular in China, so he didn’t have any personal sponsorship (only sponsorship of swimming team) and he didn’t participate in commercial activities. I don’t think he was very rich so it was very generous of him.
Hope he can get a gold medal in Tokyo (that would have make him rich…).
Excellent to see that he is helping out with the relief effort. Best wishes towards all affected