Paris Olympic Shooting Heroes Receive Delayed Prize Money... What Is the Amount?

Shooting Federation Resolves to Pay a Total of 321 Million Won

Shooting medalists who did not receive prize money from the Korea Shooting Federation will receive their rewards belatedly.

The Korea Shooting Federation recently held a general assembly and resolved to allocate a total of 321 million KRW from the federation’s promotion fund to medalists and coaches. Of this amount, 315 million KRW is Olympic prize money for athletes and coaches. The remaining 6 million KRW will be paid to athletes who secured Olympic qualification spots.

According to federation regulations, the Olympic prize money for gold medalists is 50 million KRW, silver medalists receive 20 million KRW, and bronze medalists get 10 million KRW. Coaches receive half the amount awarded to athletes: 25 million KRW (gold), 10 million KRW (silver), and 5 million KRW (bronze).

2024 Paris Olympic Shooting Team. Photo by Yonhap News

Originally, the Shooting Federation planned to pay the Olympic prize money using the 300 million KRW donation promised by former president Shin Myeong-ju upon his inauguration in June. However, when Shin abruptly resigned due to issues related to 'staff wage arrears,' the prize money owed to athletes was not disbursed.

Although the federation had received a verbal promise of the donation from Shin at the time of his resignation, it decided to use the promotion fund due to the urgency of paying the Olympic prize money.

Using the federation’s promotion fund requires approval from the higher authority, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. The promotion fund has been accumulated by the Shooting Federation since the 1980s and is currently known to have about 1.65 billion KRW.

The Shooting Federation plans to complete the approval process after the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee’s audit and pay the prize money to athletes as early as next month.

Meanwhile, at the Paris Olympics, Korean shooting achieved its best-ever performance by winning three gold medals and three silver medals. Ban Hyo-jin, a second-year student at Daegu Physical Education High School, won the gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle. Yang Ji-in (Korea National Sport University) claimed gold in the 25m pistol event, and Oh Ye-jin (IBK Industrial Bank) took gold in the women's 10m air pistol.

Kim Ye-ji, who won silver behind Oh Ye-jin, became a global shooting star thanks to videos of her matches posted on social media. Park Ha-jun (KT) and Geum Ji-hyun (Gyeonggi Provincial Government) earned the first medals for the Korean delegation at the Paris Olympics with a silver in the mixed air rifle event. Cho Young-jae, who competed in the Olympics as a member of the Armed Forces Athletic Corps, won silver in the rapid fire pistol event, qualifying for early discharge, but fulfilled his military service obligation and was honorably discharged last month.

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