Sports ministry’s revised rewards scheme brings coaches under its ambit

New Delhi: The sports ministry’s revised cash rewards schemes for international medal-winning athletes has come with an interesting addition. The government has now brought coaches under the ambit of monetary rewards with eligible medallists having to recommend their coaches. The coaches have been distinguished as grassroots level, development level, and elite level with separate criterion laid out for each category.

The Olympic medallists will continue to get ₹75 lakh for winning the gold medal, ₹50 lakh for silver and ₹30 lakh for bronze. The cash prize for Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medallists remains unchanged at ₹30 lakh, ₹20 lakh and ₹10 lakh.

In a departure from the previous policy, multiple medal-winning sportspersons from Olympics, Paralympic Games, Asian Games and Para-Asian Games, in either individual or team categories, shall be rewarded for each medal won. If an athlete wins multiple medals at other international events, they shall be entitled to cash incentive only for the highest-rated medal.

The coach or set of coaches associated with the medal-winning sportsperson(s) shall receive 50 percent of the cash incentive payable to the respective athletes.

The grassroots level coach or set of coaches shall receive 30% of the total cash incentive payable to coaches. The development coaches “who further nurtured and developed the medal-winning sportsperson” shall also receive 30% of the total cash incentive payable to coaches while the elite coaches will receive 40% of the prize money.

In cases where more than one coach is nominated in a single category, the allocated cash incentive for that category shall be distributed equally to them.

The medallists may also nominate their training institutions instead of individual coaches for cash incentives. “The nominated akhara(s) or academy(ies) shall be eligible to receive the proportionate share of the incentive as determined under the respective category,” the circular stated.