Georgia will raise prize money for its gold medal winners to 715,000 U.S. dollars at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, reports from Tbilisi said Monday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili set this order when he met with the country's Olympic team. Hopefully there will be more millionaires in Georgia after the Olympics, he said.
A total of 35 Georgian athletes had been accredited as members of the Olympic team, and they will take part in 12 events at the Beijing Olympics.
Georgia won two gold medals and two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The bonus for the Olympic winners stood at 50,000 dollars for the gold and 35,000 dollars for silver.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)