Poland’s 30-year-old speed climber Aleksandra Miroslaw paced competitors for most of her career, breaking the world record 10 times, including twice in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
Two days later, she held off China’s Deng Lijuan by 0.08 seconds in the final to defend her domain and take home Olympic gold. But for Miroslaw, when she returns to Poland, she will have a new home for her first-place prize.
For winning the gold medal — Poland’s first of the Paris Games — the country is rewarding Miroslaw with a two-bedroom apartment in Warsaw, and would gift the same to any other individual athlete representing Poland who wins an Olympic event. For Polish athletes who win gold in a team sport, the country will gift them a one-bedroom flat in Warsaw, the Polish Olympic Committee confirmed to The Athletic.
Aleksandra Miroslaw competes against Lijuan Deng during the women’s speed final. (Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Poland men’s volleyball team edged the United States 3-2 (25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13) in Wednesday’s semifinal. It advances to the gold medal match against France on Saturday, where — like Miroslaw — there’s more than a medal at stake.
Polish gold medalists — individual or on a team — will also receive PLN 250,000 (roughly $63,000), a painting from a local and respected artist, an investment-grade diamond and a vacation voucher for two from a travel agency, the POC confirmed.
The global gamut of golden gifts ranges from financial rewards to a lifetime of free chicken. (No, seriously).
The United States pays gold medalists $37,5000 and Hong Kong, who competes independently of China, rewards such athletes with $768,0000. The Philippines gymnast Carlos Yulo, who won two individual gold medals in men’s floor and vault, will pocket money paid out by the government while also having a seat at numerous restaurants across his home nation that promised him a lifetime supply of local dishes like chicken inasal, according to Olympics.com.
As the first Filipino man and second-ever Filipino athlete to win gold, Yulo joins Miroslaw as a homeowner. Originally promised a fully-furnished two-bedroom apartment in the McKinley Hill district of Manila, Filipino real estate company Megaworld upgraded Yulo’s gold medal bonus to a three-bedroom apartment after he captured his second gold, the company said on Instagram.
Carlos Yulo celebrates winning gold during the artistic gymnastics men’s vault final. (Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
It sure is good to be on top, even if you only have six seconds to get there.
Miroslaw’s 6.06-second climb in the women’s qualification events Sunday set an Olympic and world record, two distinctions she previously stamped in 6.84 and 6.24 seconds, respectively. In the final, she climbed the 15-meter wall in Le Bourget — the only temporary sports facility built for the Olympics, about 6.5 miles north of Paris — in 6.10 seconds to win the first-ever speed climbing Olympic gold medal.
In climbing’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics, it included three disciplines — lead, bouldering and speed — for one medal. For Paris, the format changed to separate speed climbing into its own medal category, leaving lead and bouldering conjoined.
Miroslaw, who placed fourth in Tokyo, told CNN, “I never have been specialized in boulder or lead, I was always a speed climber. So it’s a big privilege to be here and have the opportunity to compete in my discipline.”
Her ascension in the sport carries her farther than 15 meters north, but also 102 miles southeast of her hometown of Lublin to Warsaw, where her new apartment awaits.
(Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)
