In the midst of Team South Africa’s poor showing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it seems medalists Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag will be smiling all the way to the bank at the close of the competition.
Crowdfunding campaign raises R100K for SA medalists
Team SA only collected three medals in the 17-day athletic contest that was bossed by the United States (US), China and host nation Japan.
Schoenmaker walked away with a world record and a coveted gold medal in the 200m breaststroke final, and Buitendag made history as the world’s first athlete to receive a silver medal in the Olympics’ first-ever surfing contest.
Following the conclusion of the competition, murmurs grew that due to financial constraints, Team SA’s medalists and coaches would not receive rewards from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), as it’s been tradition for many years.
This prompted founder of Matchkit, Mike Sharman, to launch a crowdfunding campaign for Schoenmaker and Buitendag as a gesture of appreciation for the pair’s outstanding efforts at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Women’s sport always has to work that much harder; they have to work that much harder for investment or support and I think that it’s a distaste that [SASCOC] was quoted on Women’s Day saying they’re not getting any bonuses. And that led to me to put out that tweet that this is a real travesty and we need to do something about it,” he explained.
In less than an hour of the campaign going live, Schoenmaker and Buitendag received more than R100 000 in donations. The crowdfunding platform, unlike Backabuddy and GoFundMe, doesn’t have a live donations tally. Thus, at the time this article was published, it is unclear how much the campaign had raised.
SASCOC: Schoenmaker, Buitendag will receive bonuses
Facing backlash from the public, SASCOC president Barry Hendricks issued a response to claims that the federation, working in tandem with the sports ministry, would not be issuing financial rewards to gold medalists.
“We have been consistent in saying that we are in negotiations with partners over the issue of financial rewards to medallists at both the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics‚” he said.
Hendricks stressed that contrary to media reports, SASCOC was prepared to pay out bonuses to medalists once they’ve returned to South Africa. The federation’s president added that the decision to remain muted on the topic was to allow athletes the concentration they needed to perform well at the competition.
“We will be rewarding medallists and the amount for each medallist will be announced in due course, once we have finalised negotiations with our partners‚” he added.
While the rewards bonus from SASCOC remains to be revealed, it’s been confirmed that the donations total received from the Matchkit campaign will be halved between Schoenmaker and Buitendag.