The 2020 Olympics at Tokyo concluded three weeks back and the performances of the Indian players who were part of the Indian contingent have been the best by India in any Olympics to date. The media glorified this to such an extent that as if it was the greatest achievement by India. The performances of medal winners and the players who just lost the medal by finishing fourth are laudable, but it is the political parties and politicians who are spoilsport. They started announcing cash prizes to these winners in such a manner that was not in the right spirit of the game.
Following a successful Olympics, the seven medallists were handsomely rewarded by the Indian and state govts, as well as other sporting bodies. Here, we take a look at each of their monetary rewards:
Neeraj Chopra Haryana, the state from which Chopra hails, announced a cash reward of Rs 6 Cr, Punjab CM announced a cash reward of Rs 2 Cr, while the Manipur government announced Rs 1Cr. The IOC has awarded Rs 75 lakh. The cash-rich BCCI (cricket board) announced Rs 1 crore for Chopra and so did IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The realty firm Elan Group’s chairman announced Rs 25 lakh. BYJU’S announced a cash reward of Rs 2 crore for the 23-year-old.
Mirabai Chanu After she bagged a silver, Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a cash reward of Rs 2 crore for Chanu. Manipur’s chief minister also announced a reward of Rs 1 Cr for the weightlifter. As per the Indian Olympic Association, she would receive a cash reward of Rs 40 lakh. The BCCI announced Rs 50 lakh for the 27-year-old. In addition, she will receive Rs 1 Cr from BYJU’S.
Ravi Dahiya Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced a reward of Rs 4 Cr for Dahiya, who became the second Indian wrestler to win a silver medal at the Olympics. As per the Indian Olympic Association, Dahiya will receive Rs 40 lakhs. Besides getting a reward of Rs 50 lakh from the BCCI, he will get Rs 1 Cr from BYJU’S.
Bajrang Punia The BCCI announced Rs 25 lakh for Bajrang, who thrashed Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov 8-0 in the bronze medal match. The Haryana government, meanwhile, announced Rs 2.5 crore for the wrestler. Bajrang will be awarded Rs 1 crore by BYJU’S.
Indian men’s hockey team
The men’s hockey team, which won its first Olympic medal in 41 years, will get Rs 1.25 Cr from BCCI and Rs 1 Cr from BYJU’S. The cash rewards for players would be Rs 25 lakh, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Minister of Sports and Youth Services in Punjab, announced a cash reward of Rs 1 crore each for players of the state. Skipper Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Hardik Singh, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, and Mandeep Singh are the players who will get rewarded.
Haryana promised Rs 2.5 crore each to the state players Surender Kumar and Sumit Walmiki. The state governments also announced cash rewards for players of their respective states.
PV Sindhu Sindhu, the first Indian woman to bag two Olympic medals, is entitled to get Rs 50 lakh under Andhra Pradesh’s sports policy. While the IOC has awarded Rs 25 lakh, the BCCI also announced Rs 25 lakh for the ace shuttler. Just like the other five medallists who bagged silver or bronze, she will receive Rs 1 Cr from BYJU’S.
Lovlina Borgohain The IOC awarded Rs 25 lakh to Borgohain, the first player from Assam to bag an Olympics medal in boxing. She is set to receive Rs 50 lakh prize money under Assam’s sports policy. The Assam Congress has also announced a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh for Borgohain. The boxer is set to receive Rs 1 Cr from BYJU’S.
Winning a medal for the country is a matter of extreme pride and honor and for that medalist should be paid enough cash rewards and other benefits, but it should be given them in a more organized and constructive manner and not abruptly so that players should not lose their focus from the game.
There are other players who also participated in the Olympics and trained very hard for the same, but as their performances were not up to the mark, they were not rewarded. The govt should also think about them, to encourage them to perform better in the next international level games, govt should also give them some cash incentives which will boost their morale.
Talking about the Olympics, except PV Sindhu and wrestler Sushil Kumar who have won two medals in Olympics, all the other individual medal winners could not repeat their performances in subsequent Olympics. It has been seen after getting these cash rewards, the players’ brand value increases and they start getting advertising offers for product promotions. This way they earn more money, which sometimes becomes a deterrent for their future performances, as the player feel let me make more money when the going is good, to use these earnings as security after they retire from sports., in the process, the performance suffers. In this Olympics, we have seen most of the medal winners are not from well-to-do families.
Why this is happening? In my opinion, this is happening because we do not have a long-term sport policy and secondly, there are not enough budget allocations for picking the young players and training them for future games. Presently most of the players/athletes (other than cricket players who represent country/play in IPL) mostly look for some employment after they retire from sports. In the present scenario, the state govt is offering jobs to these players/athletes after they win some medals in Olympics. There are some tennis and badminton players who have made enough money to take care of their future, but the number of these players is very less, which can be counted on the fingertips. These competitive sports are played throughout the year, and all of these are professional tournaments, where players losing even in the first round make money. But for athletes, these types of opportunities are very minimal.
So unless we have clear cut sports policy, where athlete knows about his/her future earning prospects then only we can think of improving our performances in international events.
Friends, what is your opinion on this matter.
Waiting for your views/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
30th August 2021
Tejinder Singh Sethi
This is real good incentive to the Olympians. However it needs to be uniform across all states.
We give too much money whenever someone wins a medal. And next they fail miserably even to qualify.
Yes all the participants irrespective if they have won or not should also be awarded which will be moral booster.