The Government of Lithuania has decided to increase the state bonuses to athletes and their coaches participating in Paralympics and Deaflympics more than three times for medals of 1st – 4th places. For the purpose of gradually equalizing bonuses for winners of all three – Olympics, Paralympics, Deaflympics, amount of bonuses has started to be changed.
The minister of Education, Science and Sport Jurgita Šiugždinienė has emphasized that although state bonuses are an important source of support to athletes but not the only one. Seeking to balance a model of sports support, grants for athletes will be increased and a number of recipients will be enlarged in the future.
From now, state bonus for the 1st place medal in Paralympics and Deaflympics is 64 000 Euro (comparing to 19 200 Euro until now), 32 000 Euro for the 2nd place (9 600 Euro until now), 24 000 for the 3rd place (6 400 Euro until now), 12 800 for the 4th place (4 400 Euro until now).
Lithuania is the second country in EU by the size of bonuses allocated for athletes.
