MOSCOW, November 23 (R-Sport) - Russians who shower the home nation in glory by winning a gold medal at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games will be rewarded with prize money of 4 million rubles ($120,000), the government announced Saturday.
The incentives, which include 2.5 million rubles ($76,000) for silver and 1.7 million rubles ($52,000) for bronze and also apply to the Paralympic Games, roughly equate to those offered by the Russian government at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. That edition was considered a humiliating flop, with a meager haul of three gold medals out of 15 overall making for Russia's second-worst performance ever
Russian officials have set a relatively modest target of a top-three place in the medal table this time around, when a record 98 sets of medals will be up for grabs in 15 sports. The Games run February 7-23.
