Games medallists will be rewarded

Olympic medallists Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag will be smiling all the way to the bank after the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) and the sports ministry confirmed the two would receive financial rewards.

Sascoc president Barry Hendricks said on Tuesday that contrary to media reports‚ athletes who have won medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games and Paralympics will receive financial bonuses.

Swimmer Schoenmaker and Buitendag won their silvers on day seven of the Games, before the former triumphed in the 200m breaststroke for Team SA’s first and only gold medal a few days later.

Sascoc vice-president Lwandile Simelane and sports minister Nathi Mthethwa were non-committal last week when asked about the financial rewards for Olympic medallists.

The seeming hesitancy led to reports at the weekend suggesting  the Olympic medallists were not going to get bonuses‚ as has always been the case with previous Games. But Hendricks said reports claiming  Sascoc would not be rewarding Schoenmaker and Buitendag due to lack of funds were off the mark.

“We have been consistent in saying that we are in negotiations with partners over the issue of financial rewards to medallists at both the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics‚” said Hendricks.

The Sascoc president said the amounts have not been finalised but added that‚ despite the media reports‚ there had never been a point where a decision was made to not offer the medallists incentives.

Hendricks said Sascoc did not want the issue of financial incentives to distract from the performances of the athletes at both Games.

“We are now between the Olympics and the Paralympics and we believe  we should be consistent in our treatment of athletes. So we didn’t want to say‚ ‘yes‚ we are offering incentives for the athletes and the incentives are x‚ y and z’.

“All along, we wanted the athletes to concentrate on their performances without distraction. Both the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are being held in unprecedented times due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We will be rewarding medallists and the amount for each medallist will be announced in due course, once we have finalised negotiations with our partners‚” said Hendricks.

In 2016‚ after the Rio Games‚ Sascoc had about R4m in the kitty for its medal incentive programme, which was shared by the 10 medallists.

Sascoc handed out R500‚000 for gold‚ R250‚000 for silver and R100‚000 for bronze. The coaches of each podium finisher were also awarded under then sports minister Fikile Mbalula.

Vusimusi Mkhize‚ director-general in the department of sports‚ arts & culture‚ confirmed there will be incentives for athletes.

“The incentives will only be for the medallists for now as they are the people who have showed SA’s potential in terms of successful achievement at the Olympics and we do need to appreciate their work.

“Their performances will serve as an inspiration to aspirant Olympians and we must also note that it will also include Paralympians, whose competition is still coming, and bearing in mind that their excellence must be rewarded‚” said Mkhize.

The ministry’s director-general said Mthethwa gave financial incentives to the netball national team when they came back from the World Cup. He added that government would do the same with the Olympians and Paralympians.