Beijing Triple Gold Medalist Choi Min-jeong to Receive an Astonishing Reward Bonus

Official Reward Expected to Be at Least 389.25 Million Won

Choi Min-jeong is celebrating after securing the gold medal in the women's 1500m short track final at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held on the 16th at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] Choi Min-jeong (24, Seongnam City Hall), the ace of the South Korean women's short track speed skating team who won one gold medal and two silver medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, will receive a large amount of prize money.

She is expected to receive at least 390 million KRW from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Performance Improvement Research Pension, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, and the Korea Skating Union's prize money.

Choi Min-jeong won the gold medal in the women's 1500m individual event and the silver medal in the 1000m individual event. She also brought a silver medal to Korea in the women's 3000m relay.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism awards 63 million KRW for Olympic gold medalists, 35 million KRW for silver medalists, and 25 million KRW for bronze medalists. Team event medalists receive 75% of the amount given to individual event medalists.

Accordingly, the prize money Choi Min-jeong receives from the Ministry alone is 124.25 million KRW: 98 million KRW for individual event medals and 26.25 million KRW for the relay silver medal.

She is expected to receive a total of 86 million KRW from the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation's Performance Improvement Research Pension. The foundation awards points (an average of 20 points or more) based on international competition results and pays a monthly pension from the month following the end of the international competition until the athlete's death. The monthly pension cannot exceed 1 million KRW (evaluation score of 110 points), but Choi Min-jeong has already surpassed the 110-point evaluation score and receives a lump-sum incentive for the Olympic gold medal separately from the monthly pension. The lump-sum incentive is 1.5 million KRW per 10 points, but for Olympic gold medals, it is increased to 5 million KRW per 10 points.

Additionally, if an athlete wins two or more gold medals including other Olympics, they receive a 50% bonus, and if they win two or more gold medals in the same Olympics, they receive a 20% bonus. Having already won two gold medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Choi Min-jeong receives these bonus benefits for achieving back-to-back wins at this Olympics.

Choi Min-jeong earned 135 points from this competition's gold medals alone, receiving at least 65 million KRW (5 million KRW x 13), and also received 21 million KRW (1.5 million KRW x 14) for two silver medals (140 points).

There is also prize money from the Korea Skating Union. The union offers 100 million KRW for gold medals, 50 million KRW for silver medals, and 30 million KRW for bronze medals in individual events at this Olympics. For team events, 200 million KRW for gold, 150 million KRW for silver, and 100 million KRW for bronze are distributed among participating athletes. The distribution method for team events is still under internal discussion. Choi Min-jeong is expected to receive at least 180 million KRW from the union.

Assuming the Korea Skating Union distributes 30 million KRW for the relay silver medal to each athlete, adding the prize money from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Performance Improvement Research Pension, and the Korea Skating Union, the total official prize money Choi Min-jeong receives is approximately 390.25 million KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.