Ukraine will reward its medal-winning Olympic athletes with cash prizes totaling $1.84 million, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine announced on Aug. 6.
Gold medalists will each receive $125,000. Silver medalists will get $80,000 and bronze medalists will get $55,000.
These are very big prizes by international standards. For comparison, U.S. athletes receive bonuses of $37,500, $22,500 and $15,000, for gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. Japan, which hosted the Olympics this year, will award bonuses of $45,000, $18,000 and $9,000.
However, it’s still lower than what some countries give away. In Singapore, medalists are paid $737,000, $369,000 and $184,000, respectively.
Despite fielding fewer athletes than in the previous Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Ukraine won more medals this year. Ukrainian athletes secured 19 medals at the postponed Olympics in Tokyo compared to 11 in 2016.
Greco-Roman wrestler and lawmaker Zhan Beleniuk will be the only one receiving the top prize of $125,000. Beleniuk took the gold on Aug. 4, his second medal after winning silver in Rio in 2016.
Swimmer Mykhailo Romanchuk and canoeist Liudmyla Luzan each earned one silver and one bronze medal in Tokyo and will both receive a total of $135,000.
The Ukrainian duo of Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk, who won the bronze medal in the artistic swimming event and another bronze medal as a team with six other dancers will receive $111,000 each.
Silver medalists including wrestler Parviz Nasibov, karateka Anzhelika Terliuga, canoeist Anastasiia Chetverikova, boxer Oleksandr Khyzhniak and sprint cyclist Olena Starikova, will each receive $80,000.
Fifteen athletes, including six artistic swimmers who competed together with Fiedina and Savchulk and tennis star Elina Svitolina, will each get $55,000.
In addition, three Olympians who come from Lviv, will receive free apartments from the city. They include Starikova, as well as karateka Stanislav Horuna and wrestler Alla Cherkasova, both of whom won a bronze medal.
