On Wednesday, July 31st, 2024, the State Minister for Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang announced the prize money for Uganda’s Olympic Games medalists at this year’s event in Paris, France.
Gold, silver, and bronze medalists are to take home UGX 100m, UGX 50m, and UGX 30m, respectively from the Ministry of Education and Sports via National Council of Sports (NCS).
Two days later, Joshua Cheptegei has pocketed his first sum of the money, UGX 100m for winning gold in the Men’s 10,000m at Stade de France on Friday night.
In addition to the UGX 100m from the Ministry of Education and Sports, Cheptegei bagged $50,000 from World Athletics Federation which is approximately UGX 184m.
The 27-year-old settled for silver in the 10,000m at his first Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan in 2020 and he had all himself set out for gold this time around.
The long distance runner achieved the feat in style by setting up a new Olympic time record of 26:23.14.
He became the first Ugandan athlete to win two golden medals in the Olympics, gold in the 10,000m in Paris in 2024 and gold in the 5,000m in Tokyo in 2020.
His partner in crime, Jacob Kiplimo as usual helped him to set the pace in the opening laps and settled for the eighth place with a time of 26:46.39.
They will both return to the running track on Wednesday chasing medals in the 5,000m where they will be joined by their compatriot Oscar Chelimo.
