Question of money: Russian Olympians wanted to compensate for lost opportunities without results

The ROC Executive Committee decided to compensate elite athletes for “financial losses.” Under the project, 500 thousand rubles will be paid to Olympic gold medalists, 350 thousand rubles to silver and 250 thousand rubles to bronze medalists.

And this is not the future participants of the Games, as someone might have misunderstood, but the previous Olympic Games. For those merits. 150 thousand rubles will be paid to the Olympic participants who did not achieve awards. “We are generally talking about participants in the Olympic Games who are active athletes and who, according to our logic, were preparing to participate in Paris 2024,” explained ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov.

That is, it is necessary to pay compensation to everyone who won, became a prize-winner, or simply took part in the Games and competes at internal competitions. Payment for lost profits? That is, compensation for lost income that “a person would have received under normal conditions if his right had not been violated”? Or payment for actual damage? Here we risk burying ourselves in an economic jungle from which we will never get out. But, to put it simply, I want to support the athletes. True, it turns out that only those who competed at the Games?

This decision may have both supporters and opponents. Moreover, both of them will be right in some way. It is a fact of life that many athletes who compete at the international level, and who do not even regularly find themselves on the podium, thereby added a good international penny to their salary.

It is also true that not all sports in Russia managed to create a home calendar with high prize money after the suspension. Yes, everyone oohed and ahhed last year from the cult figure skating with its publicized millions and for a series of Grand Prix stages, and for a show tournament, and for a jumping tournament… But, for example, fellow skaters in the International Skating Union are short – track or ice skating – there is no such possibility. For now or not at all, and why, and whether this situation can somehow be corrected is another question. In short, if the federation has a good sponsor, the funds will be found. But, of course, not all types are attractive to sponsors.

But the truth of life is that our sport is not only about the elite. And the desire to highlight only the top ones – and the participants in the Olympic Games cannot be called anything else – is confusing. And it reminds me of another recently made proposal, which even caused some consternation. It was first voiced by Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia Alexey Morozov: we want to introduce the concept of “golden hundred” for outstanding athletes, “so that they are not dragged into other national teams”, so that they are provided with sufficient wages.

It was, of course, a very unfortunate formulation; it seems to me that it sounded insulting even to the outstanding ones themselves. The question just came to the surface: is everyone flying our flag just for the money? And if you don’t increase the tax payments, will they abandon the country without looking?

The official also said that the Sports Training Center for National Teams, which pays salaries, and the maximum today is 147 thousand, will increase the amount next year to 200 thousand. The same applies to coaches – salary increases. And at the same time it was said: the budget includes money for payments for the Olympic Games, “we are not giving up on them yet.” And the preparation programs for the 2024 and 2026 Games have not been curtailed.

True, a week earlier, another Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia, Azat Kadyrov, said that Russian athletes competing in a neutral status would not receive prize money in Russia for participating in the Olympic Games. (Although no one expects any other athletes from Russia at the Games.) “They are going like no one from anyone, the athletes must give up everything. If someone gets a license, we have to remove him from the Sports Training Center rate, all these expenses are borne by the International Olympic Committee. If someone wins a medal of any value, the corresponding issue will be raised,” said a representative of the Ministry of Sports at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Physical Education and Sports.

He also stated that 882.2 million rubles budgeted for paying prize money to Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics in Paris will be redirected to support participants in the Friendship Games. And assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin announced at the WEF that, for example, the Friendship Games provide payments corresponding to the prize money at the Olympics. That is: 4 million rubles for first place, 2.5 million for second, 1.7 million for bronze. (By the way, there are no questions here: a separate tournament means separate money.)

If we return from these amounts (which are terribly far from the people, including the mass sports community) to the idea of ​​​​creating a “golden hundred” with the promise of preventing a change of citizenship, then it looks not only like zero, but a rotten option in every sense, going deep into the negative. There are competitions with a prize fund – go and earn money, organize master classes, persuade sponsors, look for opportunities. You are the top, fight not only for yourself, but also for the children who will take care of your kind.

To be fair, the idea received such a bewildered response among non-athletes that the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, Dmitry Svishchev, hastened to reassure the people. He said that this was just one of the proposals of one of the meeting participants, and it was “thrown into the media as a solution.” But there is no decision itself, but “measures to support athletes are being developed, and at the meeting there were 100 different options.”

It seems that the compensation offered to our Olympians of different levels is from those 100 different options, although from a different meeting. And the same “Golden Hundred” is a wonderful and worthy idea to celebrate the successes of athletes. There are the top 100 most influential, richest or any other people in the world. We will have a “Golden Hundred” of athletes. Just not for approaching the cash register window. For professional glory, with its own sign of involvement in the greatness of Russian sports. And there can be many options for how to mark belonging to the hundred.

And also, returning to compensation for participants and medalists of the Olympic Games. This word itself is not from the sports lexicon, no matter how good intentions it may be hidden. Still, any payments in sports, like medals, are received for the result that is on the scoreboard. Otherwise, you can keep count of the missed medals and bear the title of the “lost” champion.