04 August 2004	Wednesday	17 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

MOSCOW, Aug 3: Russia's gold medal winners in Athens could receive the biggest bonuses the country has paid to their Olympic champions.

"We haven't come up with the exact sum yet but it should be at least $60,000 and could go as high as $100,000 in addition to what the government had already promised our gold medallists," Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Leonid Tyagachyov said.

The government said they would pay $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000 to gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively. "That would make our Olympic champions at least $110,000 richer," Tyagachyov said.

Russia paid a $100,000 bonus to their Olympic champions at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, though winners at Sydney in 2000 and the 2002 Salt Lake City Games received only $50,000.

Tyagachyov said his money would come from private sponsors. "We have several big companies which already expressed interest in supporting our athletes," he said. A source close to the ROC said the original idea was to give Olympic champions a $200,000 bonus.

"Our sponsors would have had to spend some $6 million, but it's peanuts to most of our oligarchs," the source told Reuters, referring to Russia's wealthy business elite. "If they could spend over $10 million for an average soccer player from abroad to play in the premier league, they could easily find $6 million for our best athletes."

Russia estimate they could win at least 30 gold medals in Athens. Last week Tyagachyov complained that lack of money could have a negative effect on the country's performance in Athens as Russia had only little over $100 million available for the four-year period, far less than their American or Chinese competitors.

Meanwhile, Tyagachyov warned that no mercy will be shown to those caught using illegal substances during the Athens Games that begin next week. "The athletes and the president of the sporting federation will all bear responsibility if anyone fails a drugs test," Tyagachyov told the RIA Novosti news agency. -Reuters