NEW DELHI: The
Indian Olympic Association
(
IOA
) will give away a
cash award
of Rs 1 crore to individual
gold medal winners
at the Paris Games. The silver medallists will get Rs 75 lakh and bronze medallists Rs 50 lakh, TOI has learnt. The Games will run from July 26 to August 11.
These awards will be given over and above what the govt offers to the Olympic medallists in individual categories.
According to the govt’s scheme for medal winners, an Olympic champion gets Rs 75 lakh, the silver winner Rs 50 lakh and bronze medallist Rs 30 lakh.
IOA had, for the first time, handed out cash awards in 2018 to the medal winners of the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games: gold medallist got Rs 5 lakh, silver medallist Rs 3 lakh and bronze winner Rs 2 lakh.
Since then, IOA has been regularly rewarding the athletes. At the
Tokyo Olympics
in 2021, it has given Rs 75 lakh to the gold medallist, Rs 40 lakh to silver winner and Rs 25 lakh to the bronze medallist.
For the Paris Games, it has announced a significant raise in the cash prizes. In the case of silver and bronze winners, the award money has been almost doubled.
Medal expectations
The IOA has put its projection count for Paris at 10 individual medals. In an interview with TOI recently, IOA president P T Usha had expressed confidence that India would finish with a double-digit medal tally. IOA is expecting Indian athletes to win at least 10 individual medals in Paris and for that, it has earmarked a budget of Rs 7 crore.
IOA has also decided to separately award the country’s men’s hockey team with a cash prize since the sport falls in the ‘teams’ category. In case the hockey team wins gold, it will be given a cash prize of Rs 2 crore. For a runners-up position, the team will get Rs 1 crore and for bronze Rs 75 lakh.
Recently, World Athletics (WA) had announced a cash prize of $50,000 (approx. Rs 42 lakh) for each gold medal winner at the Paris Games, a historic step for the Summer Games.
IOA has also earmarked a pocket allowance of $50 per day for each member of the Indian contingent for their stay in Paris. The allowance has been calculated for 25 days to be spent on 195 members of the country’s contingent.
In another first, IOA will provide a cash grant to athletes and support staff going to Paris. The athletes will receive Rs 2 lakh each and the coaching and support staff Rs 1 lakh each.
IOA will also bear the cost of Rs 4.40 lakh on golf bags for the four-member Indian team (@Rs 110,000 per member). IOA will also spend Rs 9 lakh on the boarding and lodging of 4P category athletes and groom of equestrian.
IOA AWARDS ON OFFER FOR INDIVIDUAL MEDALLISTS
Gold Medallist: Rs 1 crore; Silver: Rs 75 lakh; Bronze: Rs 50 lakh
For Men’s Hockey Team
Gold: Rs 2 crore; Silver: Rs 1 crore; Bronze: Rs 75 lakh
WHAT GOVT OFFERS
Gold: Rs 75 lakh; Silver Rs: 50 lakh; Bronze: Rs 30 lakh
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