Gina Rinehart Funds $3 Million Australian Olympic Medal Incentive

Australian Olympic athletes compete under an incentive structure that is, unusually, privately underwritten. The $3 million Patron's Medal Achievement Incentive Fund runs through the Australian Olympic Committee.

How it works

The fund pays athletes for medal performance at Olympic level. It sits alongside a separate bonus arrangement in swimming, where Dolphins members can earn from $30,000 for a world record down to $10,000 for a bronze.

Why it exists

Australia's public sports funding is directed largely at programs and institutes rather than individual payments. That produces good coaching and facilities, but leaves athletes personally under-compensated relative to the hours they commit.

An incentive fund addresses the individual side, which is where the shortfall sits.

The size of it in context

Combined private support exceeds the total available to swimmers through the Australian Olympic Committee and Australian Institute of Sport incentive programs. That is a striking position for a national sporting system, and it is a fair question whether it should be.

The regional view

Ballarat has a long record of producing athletes who progress to national programs, and the same constraint applies as everywhere outside the capitals: the cost of competing is not evenly distributed.

Whatever the debate about private money in public sport, the money reaches athletes who would otherwise be paying their own way.

Sources: Australian Olympic Committee; The Conversation; Hancock Prospecting.