Government to give 70,000 euros to gold-winning Moldovans at Beijing Olympics

Moldovan sportspeople can get 70,000 euros from the Government, if they bring home gold medals from the Beijing Olympics. The state will give by 50,000 for silver and by 30,000 for bronze medals, Info-Prim Neo reports. The sportspeople winning places from 4 to 8 will get from 15 to 1 thousand euros. The trainers will get the same amount, and it will be shared in case the sportsperson has more coaches. The medics will get 20% from the value of the prize, and the amount will be shared if there were more doctors assisting the sportsperson. The prizes will be exempted from taxation. Andrei Cimili, the director of the Moldovan Sports Agency says the 31-member Olympic team leave for Beijing on July 26. “We're optimistic. Now we want toreach the venue to allow the sportsmen to adapt to the time belt and to the training conditions. As for the prizes, they are by 40% bigger than for the previous Olympic games and larger than the ones offered by the Governments of Russia, France, the Czech Rep., Romania, Japan, USA, yet much less than the ones of Turkey or Italy, which give $273,000 for gold and 180,000, respectively,” Andrei Cimili said. Moldova has by two medal winners (silver and bronze) at the Olympics in Sydney and Athens, while in 1992, in Barcelona, weightlifter Tutor Casapu won the golden medal,performing under the common flag of the former Soviet countries, since the Olympic Committee did not make the due modifications to its regulations after countries as Moldova declared their independence.