Other events in Baltic States

he president of the Estonian Olympic Committee (EOC), Urmas Soorumaa, has made a proposal to the government to raise the monthly allowance paid by the government to Olympic gold medalists to the level of the national average wage.

Soorumaa said that, on behalf of the Estonian Olympic Committee, he was proposing to peg the payout to Olympic winners to the average wage so that it enabled Olympic heroes to maintain their standard of living also after many years.

The size of the support for a winner of Olympic Games has been unchanged at 640 euros a month for many years. An Olympic gold medal winner who is a citizen of Estonia becomes eligible for the support ten years before attaining the pensionable age, or earlier if he or she has partial or no work ability.

"I believe and hope that also the prime minister shares the opinion that the support paid to our heroes should rise. In a small country each Olympic winner is an important person, whos experience and actions serve as an example and inspiration for many people to start moving toward high goals," Soorumaa said.

Aivo Normaks, spokesman for EOC, said that according to the proposal pegging to the average wage would mean making the allowance equal to the average wage.

The allowance for an Olympic winner is set out under articles 12 and 13 of the Sport Act.

At present the monthly allowance is paid to Olympic champions Jaan Talts, Juri Tarmak, Svetlana Tsirkova-Lozovaja, Jaak Uudmae, Erika Salumae, Mait Riismann and Ivar Stukolkin. This year, basketballer Tiit Sokk will be aded to the list.

EOC has estimated to that to raise the support to the level of the national average wage about 30,000 euros has to be added to the budget of the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2017.

The average monthly wage in Estonia in the third quarter of last year was 1,119 euros.