Cash Splash Payouts For Australia’s Dolphins: Million Dollar Medal Bonuses For Fukuoka And Manchester World Championships
Australia’s successful World Aquatic Championship and Para World Championship medallists will share a whopping $1 million medal and world record bonus incentive payments thanks to the generosity of mining magnate Mrs Gina Rinehart AO, it was announced today.
The Patron’s Medal Achievement Incentive Fund powered by Hancock Prospecting, will commit to $3 million over two years (2023 and 2024) for its four funded sports in the lead up to and for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Australia’s Swimming, Rowing, Volleyball and Artistic Swimming teams will be the major beneficiaries of what in some ways is a career-saving, ground breaking scheme.
It will provide performance-based payments for medallists at a World Championship, and Olympic or Paralympic Games.
And with the Dolphins dominant in Fukuoka, the new funding scheme will match the incentive bonuses already paid by World Aquatics – dollar for dollar – making it a massive win-win as swimmers around the world play catch up in the multi-million world of international professional sport.
Mrs Rinehart’s Patron’s Medal scheme bonuses of $A20,000 (Gold medal), $A15,000 (Silver), $A10,000 (Bronze) and $A30,000 (world record) will equal the US dollar amounts (paid by World Aquatics) in Australian dollars.
WINNER WINNER: Mollie O’Callaghan the big winner in Australia’s medal haul from Fukuoka. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
The Dolphins topped the gold medal tally in Fukuoka – winning 13 Gold, Seven Silver and Five bronze for a total of 25 medals which will equate to a whopping collective payment of $590,000 from The Patron’s Fund.
Australia’s most successful swimmer in Fukuoka, Mollie O’Callaghan, won a whopping $A142,000 for her medal haul of five gold and a silver and four world records, from the World Aquatics payment scheme and with The Patron’s Fund the girl from St Peters Western will add a further $A111,250 to her bank account – for a grand total of $253,250.
A massive payday for Swimming Queensland’s brightest new swim star – who also stands to continue to cash in if she has a successful Paris 2024 campaign.
Tokyo Olympic champion and two-time gold and silver medallist and two-time world record holder (400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay) Ariarne Titmus will receive an extra $87,500 and added to her World Aquatics winnings of $123,000 will push her over $200,000.
Other big winners are backstroking queen Kaylee McKeown ($67,500) for a total of $164,500; relay demon Shayna Jack ($56,250) for a total of $116,250; teenage distance sensation Sam Short adding an extra $45,000 for a total of $113,000 and sprint king Kyle Chalmers ($42,500) for a total Fukuoka pay packet of $93, 500.
There is also a massive dividend and a huge ground-breaking funding breakthrough for Australia’s Para Swim Team who won 30 medals in the recent Manchester World Championship campaign – where they won nine gold, seven silver and 14 bronze medals.
The $20,000 (Gold), $15,000 (Silver), $10,000 (Bronze) and $30,000 for a world record netted the Para team a record bonus total of $445,000 – extra funding they had never seen the sight of before.
Among the big medal winners are Paralympic stars Benjamin Hance ($46,250) and Katja Dedekind ($45,000), stand-alone figures with no bonuses on offer from the international governing body.
BEN’S BIG BONUS: Paralympic swim star Ben Hance getting excited with team mate Jake Michel. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
The Hancock Prospecting scheme is the only private performance initiative of its scale to benefit Australian Olympic and Paralympic sport medal achievers, outside Government and Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympic funding.
Hancock Prospecting announced that a total of $1.5 million dollars would be allocated annually to its sports and is in addition to the long-term direct athlete assistance payments and high-performance program support that each sport’s Patron, Mrs Gina Rinehart AO, through her business Hancock Prospecting already funds, aiding close to 150 athletes each year.
Swimming’s triple Olympian and two-time Olympic relay gold medallist Bronte Campbell is the President of the Australian Swimmers Association who spoke of the unwavering support of swimming and its athletes – a steady platform they have relied upon over the last 10 years to help propel Australian swimming to the number one position in the world.
“Off the back of Australia’s record-breaking performance at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka in Japan, our best international performance, I know that the athletes stood on those blocks feeling so well supported by the long-term direct athlete support that we have received now for over a decade, from Mrs Rinehart, her various foundations and Hancock Prospecting,” said Campbell, who will herself attempt to qualify for a fourth Olympic team to Paris.
“To have Gina and Hancock executives, and partners cheering from the stands in Fukuoka, together with her guests was special for the swimmers.
“This additional funding announcement, which is underpinned by existing funding, is fantastic, and we thank Mrs Rinehart for her continued belief and support of us.
“She is truly unique as a Patron of our swimmers. Her enthusiastic support and dedication is greatly appreciated by our swimmers and their families.”
This is wonderful & so deserved!
In portions of this report, you have deceptively mixed USD and AUS dollar figures by not using the appropriate symbols, which inflates the apparent amounts.
$253,250 a motza for Mollie O !