Does Australia pay Olympic athletes who win a medal on the world’s biggest stage?
The short answer is yes — but it’s complicated.
To receive funding from the(AOC), medallists “must maintain appropriate training regimes” with “the intention” of continuing their elite sporting career.
Here’s what that means.
Medal incentives
Australian medallists in Paris will be eligible for funding from the AOC’s ‘Medal Incentive Fund’ (MIF).
For gold medallists, that incentive is $20,000. Silver is $15,000, and bronze is $10,000. Athletes only receive one payment, based on their best result. For example, an athlete who wins one gold and two silvers will only be paid $20,000.
However, athletes won’t get any funding until the year after the Games.
The MIF is designed to act as an incentive to keep athletes in the sport at an elite level.
Olympic medal-winning athletes receive funding after one year, if they stay in their sport.
During the years between the Olympics, athletes can also receive additional MIF funding if they medal in ‘Benchmark Events,’ such as World Championships.
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The Committee says the MIF is “not a reward payment”.
Paralympians
Prior to the Tokyo Games, Australianmedallists didn’t receive any similar incentive payment.
Following public outcry, then-Prime Minister Scott MorrisonParalympic medallists would receive equivalent payments to their Olympic counterparts.
While the current Government has increased funding to Paralympic programs, it’s not clear if it will continue the previous Government’s medal payments.
Alternative funding
Earlier this year,(the global body for athletics) announced prize money for track and field medalists at the Olympics.
They are the first and only governing body of any Olympic sport to offer prize money to international athletes who win at the Games.
Olympians who win gold in categories like sprinting, hurdles, and pole vault will receive $US50,000 ($AU77,000) at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Relay teams will receive the same amount “to be shared among the team”.
In addition to the MIF, Australian volleyball, rowing, swimming and artistic swimming Olympic and Paralympic medalists are rewarded from a grant established by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Rinehart and her company, Hancock Prospecting, contributed $3 million to the Patron’s Medal Achievement Incentive Fund ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
Gold medallists will receive $20,000 from the fund, and $30,000 if they break a world record.
