PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sarah Sjöström became Sweden’s great Olympic gold hero.
When she exceeded all expectations with double gold medals.
But after the championship, she directs clear criticism towards her own home country.
Not many believed that Sarah Sjöströms fifth championship as an elite swimmer would be her very best so far in her career. But what an incredible smash hit it was for our 30-year-old swimming queen.
Sjöström’s criticism
Sjöström won double Olympic gold in the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle and has been praised enormously ever since. But despite the successes, the Swedish golden hero has not been completely satisfied, especially not against his own homeland Sweden.
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Sarah has been clear that she does not appreciate the Swedish Olympic Committee, SOK, and how they act during the Olympics. Above all, harsh criticism has been directed at how the Swedish Olympians compensate far too poorly.
– I think that all athletes who make achievements like this, or even just athletes who qualify for the Olympics, should be able to get some type of bonus, says Sjöström to Radiosporten.
The answer from SOK
Many other countries give financial bonuses to their Olympians, sometimes very lucrative ones. Most often, this applies to countries where the state steps in and supports the athletes with money.
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Now comes the answer from the SOK about the missing bonuses for Olympic medals.
– We at SOK are mainly commercially financed and two-thirds of our money comes from partner collaborations. Then we get money from the state for the actual implementation of the Olympics, but all our scholarships come from our partner collaborations. We want to invest the money we have – here and now – to give our athletes a really good journey towards an Olympics and not save money to possibly pay out a bonus, says the general secretary Åsa Edlund Jönsson to the radio channel.
READ MORE: Harsh words about Armand Duplantis that arouse strong reactions in Sweden – unexpected jump: “He is not a great athlete”
Even if SOK would get more money from the state to manage, there would still be no bonuses for all Swedish athletes.
– Then we would instead try to give even nicer conditions to our active members and raise the scholarship levels we have, says Edlund Jönsson.
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