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Thursday, October 12
Romanian medalists, coaches get cash awards
Reuters
BUCHAREST, Romania -- Romania gave record cash
awards totalling over $2 million on Wednesday to medal winners
and their coaches at the Sydney Olympic Games.
|  | | Gymnast Andreea Raducan of Romania was granted money to make up for the $30,000 she would have been given had her gold medal not been stripped for taking cold medication. |
"The total amount given to the Romanian medalists and to
performers who scored points in Sydney, as well as to their
coaches, was the equivalent of $2,088,000," Romanian Olympic
Committee (COR) spokeswoman Ivana Iancu told Reuters.
"Never in the past has Romania offered such a big sum to
Olympic performers," she said.
Romania finished 11th in the Olympic standings, with a total
of 26 medals, 11 of them gold.
Iancu said that gymnast Simona Amanar received the biggest
lump sum of $77,000 for two golds and a bronze.
Amanar, 21, announced her retirement from the sport earlier
this month, saying it was very important to know how and when to
make such a decision.
Swimmer Diana Mocanu, 16, double backstroke gold medalist,
pocketed $70,000, while tiny gymnast Andreea Raducan received
$66,000.
Raducan lost $30,000 after the International Olympic
Committee in Australia stripped her of the all-round gold for
testing positive for pseudo-ephedrine, contained in a pill
administered by the team doctor to cure a cold.
Local businessmen offered extra bonuses to Raducan and Prime
Minister Mugur Isarescu approved a decree granting her $30,000,
double the amount initially offered by the government to the
Sydney gold medalists.
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