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View all search resultsSporting events like the Olympics and the Asian Games do not offer prize money, but for Indonesian medal-winning athletes at this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, their efforts will not go unrewarded
porting events like the Olympics and the Asian Games do not offer prize money, but for Indonesian medal-winning athletes at this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, their efforts will not go unrewarded.
The government has promised to give national team athletes and coaches rewards ranging from cash bonuses to promotions or jobs at government offices. The rewards are intended to motivate the athletes to perform their best.
Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi signed on Tuesday a decree detailing the cash bonus recipients and the amounts they will receive. The budget for the bonuses was set at more than Rp 178 billion (US$12 million), assuming that Indonesia wins 30 gold medals, 24 silvers and 34 bronzes by the time the Games end on Sept. 2.
“We still have time to add to our gold medal tally,” Imam said before watching the soft tennis men’s singles final between Indonesia’s Alexander Sie and South Korea’s Kim Jin-woong at Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang.
His optimism was justified when the Indonesia pencak silat team swept the competition on Monday, winning eight golds, before winning six more golds two days later to bring the count to 14, making the team Indonesia’s most successful in the history of the Games.
According to the decree, each individual gold medalist competing in a singles event will receive Rp 1.5 billion. The amount is set at Rp 1 billion in doubles events and Rp 750 million in team events. Head coaches will earn between Rp 450 million and Rp 600 billion and their assistants will earn between Rp 300 million and Rp 375 million. Silver and bronze medalists and their coaches will receive between Rp 100 million and Rp 500 million. The bonuses are an increase from the Rp 400 million rewarded for gold medalists at the 2014 Incheon Games.
The bonuses will be transferred to all the medalists at the conclusion of the Asian Para Games in Jakarta on Oct. 13 because the government also plans to reward Indonesian para-athletes.
In addition to the cash bonuses, the Public Works and Housing Ministry will provide rewards in the form of housing and civil servant jobs at government institutions.
“More bonuses await the medalists, such as from the private sector,” Imam said.
Indonesia is generous in rewarding its medal-winning athletes. Each United States gold medalist at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, was awarded $37,500, cnbc.com reported. Singapore is the most generous country, awarding its Olympic gold medalists $1 million each.
With cash bonuses on the way, some medalists have already made up their mind as to how to use the money.
Rifda Irfanaluthfi, a silver medalist in artistic gymnastics’ floor exercise, said she would use the money to send her parents and grandmother to Mecca for the haj. She added that she had used cash bonuses she had previously received to buy a boarding house.
“The boarding house is my investment for after my gymnastics career [ends],” she said.
Like Rifda, karateka Ahmad Zigi Zaresta Yudha, who won a bronze in the men’s kata, said he would use the bonus to cover his parents’ haj costs.
Men’s badminton singles player Jonatan Christie, who was crowned the Asian Games champion on Tuesday, said he would allocate part of the bonus to help earthquake victims in Lombok.
The Youth and Sports Ministry has also offered to give medalists jobs. Imam said he was in talks with Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry officials over jobs that suit the medalists.
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Apriadi Gunawan contributed to the story from Palembang.
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