For the first time, the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) will of­fer mon­e­tary bonus­es to any ath­lete who re­ceives a medal at an as­so­ci­at­ed com­pe­ti­tion, start­ing this month at the Pan Amer­i­can Games in Toron­to, Cana­da, with the high­est award of $US3,000 be­ing of­fered to a gold medal­ist in an in­di­vid­ual event.

The TTOC an­nounced its bonus struc­ture yes­ter­day via me­dia re­lease. This fol­lows the launch of a "ten or more Olympic Gold medals by 2024 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund", spear­head­ed by TTOC pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis last De­cem­ber. The prize struc­ture for the Pan Am Games cov­ers medal win­ning ath­letes in in­di­vid­ual, re­lay events and team events with a sin­gle ath­lete set to re­ceive any­where from US$750-$3,000 de­pend­ing on the event.

In­di­vid­ual gold medal win­ners will re­ceive US3,000, fol­lowed by US$2,000 and $1,000 for sil­ver and bronze medals, re­spec­tive­ly. Re­lay gold medal teams will earn US$9,000 for gold; US$6,000 for sil­ver and US$3,000 for bronze, while each ath­lete who earns a gold medal in a team sport, such as foot­ball, takes US$1,500 each; US$1,000 for sil­ver and US$750 per ath­lete for bronze.

The TTOC said it was de­ter­mined to take the nec­es­sary steps and de­ci­sions in its ef­fort to cre­ate the en­vi­ron­ment that would as­sist the ath­letes in striv­ing to achieve medal win­ning ob­jec­tives.The re­lease said: "The in­tro­duc­tion of medal bonus­es is an es­sen­tial com­po­nent of the ten or more Olympic Gold medals ath­lete wel­fare and prepa­ra­tion pro­gramme.

"In pur­suit of its strate­gic goals and ob­jec­tives, the TTOC ac­knowl­edges the sup­port of its cor­po­rate part­ners: bpTT, Guardian Group, Sco­tia­bank, adi­das, Lisa Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and NL­CB."Its an ex­cit­ing time for the TTOC. One year to Rio 2016 is just around the cor­ner. Pan Am Toron­to will get un­der­way this week. Lots of chal­lenges but its ex­cit­ing."

Last Fri­day, the TTOC an­nounced a part­ner­ship with the NL­CB in­tend­ed to raise funds for the wel­fare and prepa­ra­tion of Olympic ath­letes. Yes­ter­day, NL­CB, through its 800-plus agents, be­gan the sale of $10 scratch cards bear­ing a "#10Gold24" lo­go, of which part pro­ceeds go to the ath­letes' fund. For every 500,000 cards sold, NL­CB will do­nate $200,000-$250,000 to the fund.