Thanks to the National Lottery, the 69 athletes who achieved a top eight place at the Olympic Games in Tokyo will receive a premium. A gold medal yields 50,000 euros for Nafi Thiam and Nina Derwael. The eighteen hockey players, who also won gold, will each receive 12,500 euros.
Furthermore, the silver medal of Wout van Aert is good for a premium of 30,000 euros. The bronze of Matthias Casse and Bashir Abdi earns them 20,000 euros. The three members of the jumping team, Pieter Devos, Jérôme Guery and Grégory Wathelet, who also won bronze, earn 5,000 euros.
The fourth places are awarded with a sum of 10,000 euros. When achieved in a team, it is 2,500 per athlete. The places five to eight yield 5,000 euros. In a team, that amount drops to 1,250 euros per participant. Trainers receive 25 percent of their athlete’s premium.
In total, premiums amounting to 643,000 euros will be distributed. If Japan does not withhold anything from the premiums, the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC) hopes that the premiums will be exempt from tax. “Negotiations are underway with the Belgian government about this,” CEO Philippe Vander Putten said in Tokyo on Sunday.
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