P10 million awaits medalists in Rio Olympics.
The Republic of the Philippines is among the top countries who will give huge cash incentives to its athletes who can bring home gold medals from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For about 100 years until now, the Philippines has never bagged a single gold medal from the Olympics which prompted the offer of huge monetary rewards.
The Philippine government has set aside P10 million reward per athlete to motivate them to do their best to bag gold medals. It is apart from the P5 million incentive pledged by private companies and individuals.
There are 13 Filipinos who shall compete and vie for the first gold medal of the country in the prestigious sporting event.
But no one can be more rewarded than the players from Singapore. Their government has allotted an amount equivalent to P36.8 million as incentive to the gold medalists. Georgia ranks second for allotting P32.4 million, Azerbaijan set aside P23.4 million and Thailand offered to give P14.4 million to those who can get gold medals after 20 years of not having a taste of it.
While athletes from the above-mentioned countries salivate for gold, players from United Kingdom do not have the same motivation but expect to get bonuses and product endorsements from the commercial industry.
This year’s Summer Games will feature a record number of countries are participating in a record number of sports. More than 11,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part. With 306 sets of medals, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009. These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil’s largest city), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil’s capital), and Manaus.
These will be the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach.