Zou Kai to Auction Olympic Gold

Zou Kai (China)

China's Zou Kai will auction one of his three gold medals from the 2008 Olympics to benefit his quake-stricken home province of Sichuan.

Zou announced Friday his plan to auction his floor exercise gold medal and donate the money to reconstruction projects in Sichuan, which suffered a catastrophic earthquake in May.

At the Olympics in August, the 20-year-old Zou also won gold medals with the Chinese team and on the high bar. His three golds were the most of any gymnast in Beijing.

"The floor exercise title belongs to myself, so I'd rather select this gold medal. I was born in Sichuan and I was so sad when the earthquake struck the region," he said at a press conference.

Zou was training in Beijing — site of the 2008 Olympics — with the national team when the 8.0-magnitude quake struck May 12, killing nearly 70,000 and leaving millions homeless.

"A lot of my town's citizens lost their lives and a lot of houses were toppled," Zou said. "I'd like to share my honor from the Olympics with them and hope to do something for them. So I made up my mind the second day after the Olympics closed to auction one of my gold medals for the reconstruction of the earthquake-hit area."

The Chinese men won seven of eight possible gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing, matching the Soviet men's performance at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Source: Xinhua News Agency