Athletes who win medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will receive financial incentives, contrary to recent media reports.
Mr Barry Hendricks, president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), confirmed on Tuesday that reports that the governing body would not be rewarding Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag were wide of the mark.
“We have been consistent in saying that we are in negotiations with partners over the issue of financial rewards to medallists at both the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics,” Mr Hendricks said.
“It is true that the amounts have not been finalised given that the negotiations are ongoing. However, there has never been a point whereby a decision has been made to not offer medallists incentives.
“We did not want the issue of financial incentives to distract from the performances of the athletes at both Games,” he said. “We are now between the Olympics and the Paralympics and we believe that we should be consistent in our treatment of athletes. So, we didn’t want to say, ‘yes, we are offering incentives for the athletes and the incentives are x, y and z.
“All along we wanted the athletes to concentrate on their performances without distraction. Both the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are being held in unprecedented times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We will be rewarding medallists and the amount for each medallist will be announced in due course once we have finalised negotiations with our partners,” Mr Hendricks added.