At the Athens Olympics Kyle Shewfelt won Floor. His payment for that victory from Sports Canada? ZERO DOLLARS. (hilarious interview by comedian Rick Mercer)
If Dragalescu from Romania had won gold on Floor in Athens, he would have been awarded US$65,000 by his, one of the poorest governments in Europe.
Now Canada is ponying up some dough — $20,000 for Olympic gold:
The committee believes it has found the right mix of training assistance and cash incentives with its new Athlete Excellence Fund, says COC president Michael Chambers.
“It varies wildly (in other countries, from) huge amounts to lesser amounts than we provide,” said Chambers.
“But in most of those other countries that have large rewards, at the end of the trip if you win a Games, they have very little in the way of development programs leading into the Games,” he said.
“So it’s all or nothing. That’s not where we wanted to go.”
The athlete support and reward program is a way to compensate high-performance athletes for the financial burdens they often face while training for Olympic Games, the COC said in a statement.
While gold medals will garner the highest amount, silver medal winners would be paid $15,000 and bronze medal winners $10,000.
I was surprised to hear that Paralympic athletes will be eligible, as well. Beijing will be the 13th Paralympics.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 