"I just visited them and offered them my personal money," he said, adding that he had asked the committee to raise the stipend for Cambodia's Olympic hopefuls, which is currently set at 50 U.S. dollars each athlete per month for three months prior to the games.
The minister confirmed that Cambodia receives annual funding from the International Olympic committee in Switzerland, but no member of NOCC could tell the amount and spending situation of the funding, reported English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily.
Cambodia's two Olympic track and field athletes said last week they had been preparing for the games with little to no support from NOCC.
Cambodia will send a 15-member delegation to participate in the Olympic Games in Beijing in August with focus on swimming and marathon medals. The team will include Thong Khon himself, who will depart for Beijing on August 7
King Norodom Sihamoni and Education Minister Kol Pheng also plan to attend the opening ceremony of the games.
It is not the first time Cambodia has sent athletes to the Olympics.
The first post-war delegation of five Khmers competed in the Atlanta Games in 1996, and Cambodia subsequently sent four athletes to both Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004.
| Editor: An Lu |
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