It’s the same for silver medals and bronze medals,with Olympic place-getters taking $15,000 and $10,000 respectively,but nothing for Paralympic medal winners.
Dalton,the GWS player and rugby sevens gold medallist from Rio,has raised close to $12,000 in under a day on her fundraising page,with a $100,000 goal. The money will be split evenly among Australia’s medal winners at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Dalton said she read a few weeks ago about how US Olympians and US Paralympians would get the same medal bonus,and assumed it was the same for Australians.
“My mind was blown when I found out they get zero dollars. I was under the impression it would be the same medal bonus across Olympics and Paralympics,” Dalton said.
“A big part of it that made me feel so frustrated is that there isn’t a single Paralympian competing in Tokyo that would have put in less work than an Olympian. And similar story for us in Rio as well.”
PA chief executive Lynne Anderson said:“Paralympics Australia absolutely agrees that our Paralympians deserve equity of recognition. PA have never had a funding program for Paralympic Games medallists as we just don’t have this funding available from grants or sponsorship. This is something we will look at again after the Tokyo Games.”