The National Association of Associations of Persons with Disabilities is concerned that Paralympic athletes receive half of the rewards as their Olympic counterparts, so Ogens Kovacs, president of the organization, wrote to dignitaries, President Janos Ader, President of the Republic, Viktor Orban to the Minister of Resources.
“An essential accessory of our national cohesion is the non-discrimination between rewarding an athlete for results in appreciation. All Hungarian citizens who represent our country must be treated equally. There is no difference between Olympic and Paralympic performances! (…]There should be no discrimination between Hungarians and Hungarians. , because some of them have disabilities! There is only a result that contributes to the glory of Hungary!”
Previously, Hungarian athletes who won the Paralympic medal received sixty percent of the amount awarded to the athletes in the event of winning a medal. This is after the London Olympics
The government reduced it to fifty percent.
That is, while the state awards 35 million forints for the Olympic victory, 17.5 million for the Paralympics tournament; Paralympic equivalents of 25 and 20 million forints for the second and third places are 12.5 and 10 million forints, respectively.
“A government decision that decides compensation for Olympians and Paralympics, we have no influence on it,” Laszlo Szabo, president of the Hungarian Paralympic Committee, told our newspaper. – There will be a need to improve this rate, fifty percent. However, the overall picture includes the image of athletes
It is supported by the state in three ways: in addition to the performance bonus, there are also annual salaries for medalists, and the Gerevich scholarship is also a great help.
The annual premium is paid to those over the age of thirty-five on the podium and is equal to the annual premiums for Olympic medal winners. Last year, the Gerevich scholarship will provide 39 million forints, and this year, sixty-one million for athletes with disabilities. This is a step forward, but it may be a much larger part of our study. I’ve been the head of the MPB for a year and my main goal is to increase that amount.”
This year, the sports budget provides HUF 996 million for the Gerwich Scholarship to support the best Hungarian athletes. The Hungarian Olympic Committee will decide to distribute this amount, and this year it has allocated 61 million to support the best athletes – barely six percent of the total.
