Aussie Olympians receive hefty bonuses from billionaire Harry Triguboff
Australian athletes who took home medals from the Tokyo Olympics are set to receive an additional bonus from billionaire Harry Triguboff AO, with athletes to be awarded an extra $5,000 per medal they won.
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) revealed that Triguboff, the Meriton Managing Director, donated $645,000 to the organisation.
The AOC said the donation was an “unsolicited gesture” and “unexpected bonus” for Australia’s top athletes.
Thank you Harry Triguboff AO! 👉https://t.co/TXDlTlqTGv
The @MeritonGroup Managing Director has donated $5,000 to each of the 99 Australian Olympic Team members who won 129 medals at the Tokyo Olympics. 🥇🥈🥉
📸 Sam Ruttyn / @dailytelegraph #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/7Ou2CI44aw— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) September 2, 2021
“Harry is hugely proud of what our team achieved in Tokyo, and for him to say ‘thank you’ in this way is hugely generous and most unexpected,” AOC President John Coates said in a statement.
“The donation is per medal, so for those Olympians whose efforts were rewarded with multiple medals, it will make coming home to family and friends all the sweeter.
“On behalf of the AOC, and in particular our 99 medal winners, we say thank you Harry.”
Triguboff, who has a fortune of $17.27 billion, stressed the importance of rewarding athletes during the pandemic.
“We are always successful at the Olympic Games. However, this time it was especially important because we are close to recession and many people have been impacted by the virus,” Triguboff said, per the AOC.
“The medallists in Tokyo made us all very happy and we were glued to the television and were only thinking of our athletes during this difficult time.”
The news comes as pay disparities between Olympic and Paralympic athletes have come into the spotlight, with a SBS report revealing that Paralympians do not and have ever received the same performance bonus.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has since announced that Paralympic athletes who win medals at the Games would receive the same bonuses as Olympic athletes from now on.
Gold medal winners will receive $20,000, while silver and bronze medallists will be awarded $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.
Image: AUS Olympic Team / Twitter