Although the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina are still in full swing, it can already be confidently stated that they have been successful for Latvia as a whole.
Yesterday, the luger Ieva Bota returned home with a silver medal, while the short tracker Roberts Krūzbergs will bring a bronze medal back to his homeland. In addition, Latvian athletes secured three fourth places and two fifth places, and in some sports, the best results have been achieved since the restoration of independence.
In modern sports, success is unthinkable without appropriate funding. Recently, sports officials have often stated that in Latvia, the sports sector overseen by the Ministry of Education and Science has been neglected, with athletes relegated to the role of beggars and the deprived.
"Latvijas Avīze" found out how much money from the state budget was spent on preparing Olympians and their participation in the games: these Olympic joys cost taxpayers approximately 2.37 million euros.
The Latvian Olympic Committee explained that this amount includes not only the training of athletes, which is the responsibility of sports federations, but also expenses for travel, maintenance and insurance of athletes and support staff, equipment and medical care, as well as funding for the athletes' living conditions and other organizational activities. A significant portion of the total budget is made up of the technical support program, which was implemented by winter sports federations in the amount of 1.83 million euros, meaning that this funding reached the bank accounts of the respective sports through the Latvian Olympic Committee. Funding for this program was allocated in two installments - in 2024, 1.15 million euros, and last year - 669 thousand euros.
Seven federations received the money. The biggest share went to hockey, which has the largest team - 25 athletes, five coaches, and ten support staff representatives. The next largest expense category for these Olympic Games, which is, however, ten times smaller than the technical support program, is travel expenses - 160 thousand euros were required for airfare, baggage transport, and cargo.
