“The state is going to seriously invest in sports” – Kommersant FM

The Russian Olympic Committee is going to compensate athletes for missing international competitions. The head of the organization, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, announced the amount of compensation starting from 150 thousand rubles. up to 500 thousand rubles. Is this enough for athletes? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

The payment criteria are already clear. According to Stanislav Pozdnyakov, compensation will be received by those who are active athletes and, according to ROC representatives, are preparing for the upcoming Olympics in Paris.

First of all, the money will go to representatives of summer sports. The maximum amount is 500 thousand rubles. is intended for those who already have “gold” of the Games. Silver medalists will receive 350 thousand rubles, bronze – 250 thousand rubles.

Those who participated in the Olympics of previous years, but did not win medals, are entitled to 150 thousand rubles. But the main condition for receiving payments is the refusal of neutral status. This means that anyone who agrees to compensation will deprive himself of any opportunity to participate in international competitions that involve abandoning the country’s flag and anthem.

This decision can be called controversial, two-time Olympic champion in biathlon Dmitry Vasiliev is sure: “It would be possible to organize competitions in which athletes would compete, go about their business and still earn money in a fair fight. But to buy so openly is, it seems to me, some kind of overkill.”

At the same time, there will also be tournaments in Russia where athletes can earn money. For example, the winners and medalists of the Friendship Games, which are to be held in the country in 2024, will receive the same amount as at the Olympics: 4 million rubles. for “gold”, 2.5 million rubles. – for “silver” and 1.7 million rubles. – for bronze.

If we consider that we are promised an Olympic scale and about 300 sets of medals, and they are going to pay not only Russians, but also foreigners, then it is easy to calculate that about 2.5 billion rubles will be spent on prize money alone.

For example, the medalists of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo were paid six times less, about 400 million rubles. Two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasiliev is confident that even now, having lost international tournaments, athletes are not in poverty:

“I don’t believe that they were left completely without money. It was promised to increase the salaries of all members of the national team. You need to work on this part well, so that the athletes really don’t feel bad for the fact that they prepared and prepared and were left with nothing. At least they would earn money here.”

Victory and even participation in the Olympic tournament, of course, cannot be measured in money. But now it is obvious that the state is going to seriously invest in sports, and even with a great desire, to put it mildly, only a few will be able to compete at the Olympics.

The head of the ROC Stanislav Pozdnyakov openly says that at the moment not a single athlete with a Russian passport has such an opportunity.

So, to face the truth, there is no real chance of a positive outcome in this matter. After FIFA and UEFA officially announced that all sanctions for Russian football will remain in force until the end of the SVO, similar decisions will likely be adopted by other sports federations.

So payments from OCD, no matter how strange they may look, will most likely sell out briskly. Especially when you consider that even among the athletes themselves there are many who are categorically against traveling to Paris in that same neutral status.

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