Sports authorities say there is no bonus incentive scheme yet for Chinese medalists at the upcoming London Olympic Games, despite rumors that top-spot Chinese athletes at the event could be given rewards worth of up to 500,000 yuan ($78,379).

Although athletes who have performed well at past Olympic Games have been granted bonuses, the country has not determined how to reward athletes in this year's games, the General Administration of Sport of China said Saturday in an online statement.

Yet the Zhengzhou Evening News reported on Saturday that all Chinese gold medals winners in London will receive as much as 500,000 yuan from the administration. Athletes who make it to the final eight of their sport will also receive rewards, said the newspaper.

The large financial rewards have caused controversy as many question the generosity of the "windfall" awards considering Olympic athletes are trained at taxpayers' expense.

Three months ago the administration provided some details to an awards scheme for sports bureaus and sports associations that train medal-winning athletes in the London Olympics. The posting on its website did not spell out how much the bureaus and associations would receive.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics bonuses for gold medalists,  silver medalists and bronze medalists were 200,000 yuan, 120,000 yuan and 80,000 yuan respectively, according to the Chinese Olympic Committee.

The Shenyang-based Chinese Business Morning News reported that bonuses for each gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 were as much as 350,000 yuan, but the administration denied this in its Saturday statement.

Winning athletes can also get additional bonuses from local governments, reports suggested. Guangdong Province gave its gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympics 500,000 yuan, and gold medal winners from Shandong Province received a bonus of 1 million yuan.

One of the country's richest athletes is hurdler Liu Xiang, the gold medalist at the Athens Olympics, who is worth a reported 461 million yuan, earned mainly from his commercial endorsements for such brands as Amway and Coca Cola, according to a report released by the Guangzhou-based China Brand Research Institute.

Wang Renwei, a professor with the Shanghai University of Sport, said winning athletes deserve government rewards.

"The athletes have devoted their youth and energy to bring honor to the country. Many have to live with serious injuries for the rest of their lives," she told the Global Times. "It is justified for the country to grant them some reward."

Wang Hongcai, a professor at  Xiamen University, said the government should work out some restrictions on the amount of the bonus paid to athletes.