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Bolivia offering up to 50,000 U.S. dollars for each Olympic medal

Xinhua, July 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

President Evo Morales has told the Bolivian Olympic delegation for Rio 2016 that medal-winning athletes would be rewarded with up to 50,000 U.S. dollars.

"We know the effort being made by athlete. This is why we have decided to incentivize athletes to win medals in Brazil, they will rewarded by the national government," said Morales at a press conference on Tuesday. "We want to continue down this path, to hail the athletes representing us at these Olympics."

The president explained that a gold medal would see the athlete receive 50,000 U.S. dollars, silver medalists would get 40,000 U.S. dollars and bronze medalists 30,000 U.S. dollars.

This is the first time that a Bolivian government has offered such incentives ahead of the Olympics.

On Tuesday, Morales had lunch with the athletes and coaches of the delegation which will head to Rio for the Games from August 5-21.

Bolivia will mainly look to its long-distance athletes to score medals, with competitive walkers Wendy Cornejo, Ángela Castro, Stefany Coronado, Marco Rodriguez (20km), Ronald Quispe (50km), and marathon runner Rosmery Quispe.

In swimming, Karen Torrez and Jose Quintanilla will compete in the 50m freestyle. The delegation will be completed by judoka Martin Michel, cyclist Oscar Soliz and shooters Rudolf Kjinenburg and Carina Garcia.

Despite competing in 13 Summer Olympics in the past, Bolivia has never won a medal. Endit