Kazakhstan Olympic prize-winners could get lifelong pensions

Talgat Yermegiyayev, head of Kazakhstan Sports and Physical Education Agency, will push for a lifelong retirement benefit for Kazakhstan Olympic Champions Tengrinews.kz reports. “It is a very difficult job to be an athlete. An athlete sacrifices his or her health, sacrifices everything, sometimes even childhood. Athletes enhance prestige of their country, why not get a pension to them,” Talgat Yermegiyayev said while comparing an athlete’s job to a miner’s job. “We don’t have hundred and thousand of prize-winners. Yes, we’ll have two or three gold Olympic medals. I think we need to provide a lifelong benefit to our Olympic champions, so they could live decently. I don't expect the sum of the monthly payment to be very large, although we will surely ask for the maximum pension rate that exists in Kazakhstan at present. (…) I think this will amount to not less than one hundred thousand tenge ($675). I will try to carry out this suggestion before June and submit it to the National Budget Commission for their further consideration,” the head of Sports and Physical Education Agency said to the journalists. During the Social and Cultural Development Committee session that was held on March 12, Yuriy Tskhai, Senate’s deputy announced that Olympic Games champions deserve to get a lifelong pension from their country. “I’ve got a suggestion – to provide our Olympic champions with a lifelong pension. There are countries in the world that do this. I think that our country is not poor, our country is rich enough to provide five heroes with such benefit,” the Senator said.