Will Olympic medalists get apartments as presents?
Anatol Ivanou, the deputy chairman of the Directorate of the National Team, says all the prizes are approved by the president.
“There is a president’s edict in this regard: $100K to a gold medalist; $50K to a runner-up; $30 to a bronze winner”.
In addition, there are sponsors who will also encourage athletes. The sums are yet to be confirmed, but it has already been revealed that a Chinese company that sews the outfits for our athletes has committed $10K to each medalist. Therefore, the first-place winners will get at least $110K as a bonus.
That’s not all. If an Olympic winner is on a waiting list to receive an apartment from the government, the Ministry of Sports and Tourism will facilitate the procedure.
The sports official says that the number of rooms does not depend on the quality of the medal. Rather, it depends on the number of people in a medalist’s family. However, if an athlete already owns his or her housing, no apartment would be given to them.
However, last summer Genadz Alyakseyenka, the first vice president of the National Olympic Committee, told a news conference that all the Belarusian medalists in Beijing would be presented with an apartment in the Belarusian capital. He said and a deal had been made with one of sponsors to allocate 20 apartments in Minsk.
