Paralympian Medalists Will Finally Earn As Much As Olympians At The Tokyo Games

The U.S. Olympic Committee board made a decision after the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games to give Paralympians a 400% increase for each medal win.

U.S. Paralympians who win medals in Tokyo will earn the same as Olympians in Tokyo, thanks to a decision made a few years ago by the U.S. Olympic Committee board.

The change came shortly after the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and was made retroactive to those Games.

In previous Olympics, Paralympic athletes had received $7,500 for every gold medal, $5,250 for a silver and $3,750 for a bronze, according to The New York Times.

But the USOC decision put them at parity with U.S. Olympians, who receive $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.

The U.S. Paralympic Team took home 36 medals at PyeongChang. The retroactive increase meant medal-winning athletes from 2018 got an extra $1.2 million.

You can read about the USOC's decision in a statement on their website from September 2018.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.