THE Russian Olympic Committee is promising $100,000 each to its gold medal winners in this summer's Games in Atlanta, a total believed to be much higher than most Western countries.
Vitaly Smirnov, the president of the ROC, made the promise during a meeting last week with team captains of each Olympic sport.
"Publicly we said the gold, silver and bronze medals would be worth $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000 respectively," Smirnov told the athletes, referring to his speech during a previous press conference. "But to you I can say that's the least you would get. The gold medal in an individual event would be worth a cool $100,000.
"For example, Irina can make $150,000 dollars if she wins both the 100 and 200 metres," said Smirnov, turning to three time world indoor sprint champion Irina Privalova. "Plus she can make even more by running the relays.
"We didn't want it overblown, mainly for security reasons," he said. "We had three deaths among athletes recently. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our divers was pushed out of a ninth floor window." Yelena Miroshina (21) was found dead at the foot of her apartment block in Christmas week.
Last summer Privalova and others publicly complained that disclosure of athletes' salaries made them easy targets for criminals.
Smirnov also said that St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak had promised to match the existing bonuses with his own. Privalova could then earn $200,000 for her success. With that offer, Sobchak hopes to draw extra attention to St Petersburg, one of 11 cities to vie for the 2004 Summer Games.
Smirnov assured the athletes that strained financial resources is not the problem. "Our budget has increased 15 fold since 1993, from seven billion roubles to more than 104 billion in 1995," he said. "93 percent of that money goes to elite athletes."
