Para-athletes to receive higher cash rewards for medal wins at major Games

SINGAPORE: Singapore para-athletes who win medals at most of the major Games can soon expect higher cash rewards, the Singapore National Paralympic Council (SNPC) announced on Saturday (Jul 2).

The revised incentives under the Athletes Achievement Awards (AAA) scheme will start from the upcoming ASEAN Para Games, which will be held this month in Indonesia's Solo City.

For the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, the cash reward for a gold medal has been raised from S$400,000 to S$500,000. 

Announcing this during a flag presentation ceremony for the Solo ASEAN Para Games, SNPC president Teo-Koh Sock Miang thanked the Tote Board and DBS Bank for their sponsorship of the awards.

She added that the council has continued its efforts to push for greater and better recognition of its athletes.

With the revision, individual athletes in Solo will be awarded S$5,000 per gold medal for up to three gold medals, up from S$4,000 each. Gold medallists in the team events will be awarded S$8,000, up from S$6,000. 

For the Asian Para Games, individual athletes who bag a gold medal will be awarded S$85,000, up from S$70,000. The cash reward for a gold medal in a team event will be raised from S$100,000 to S$125,000, while a gold in team sports comes with a reward of S$170,000, up from S$140,000.

The cash rewards for medals at the Commonwealth Games remain the same.

Last October, the cash reward for a Paralympic gold medal was doubled to S$400,000 after swimmer Yip Pin Xiu won two gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

The sum was raised after a public debate over the disparity in cash rewards for Olympic and Paralympic athletes. 

The reward for an individual Olympic gold medal, under the Major Games Award Programme (MAP), is S$1 million. That is double