The China Daily reported that the sweaty shoe badminton gold medalist Lin “Super” Dan (a Chinese superstar) chucked into the crowd after his win could be worth more than $70,000.

The Summer Olympics just keep getting bigger. There are 302 gold medals up for grabs in Beijing. That’s a gold medal every 47 minutes for the sixteen-day span of the games. Doesn’t sound so special when it’s put that way, does it? But is that BMX gold medal really as significant as the historic one Michael Phelps won last night? No, and there are good reasons why. Follow the jump for an in-depth analysis of the most valuable gold medals and the sports that don’t even deserve to be in the Olympics.

In the U.S., badminton is nothing much more than a game played during a backyard barbecue. But in much of Asia, it’s a national passion and the elite players are amazingly skilled, having to handle serves that can top 200 mph.

The favorite in the men’s singles is Lin Dan of China, who owns a ton of titles but has yet to win an Olympic gold medal. He’s a national star, his girlfriend, Xie Xingfang, is also top-ranked and he would fit right in with American jocks who like to play the bad boy.