The current rate for Russian athletes, who win Olympic medals, was set by a presidential order in 1996 and stands at $50,000 (£25,415) for the gold, $20,000 (£10,166) for silver and $10,000 (£5,083) for bronze.

 

But Russia's new Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko wants to double those figures.

 

He said: "We would like to introduce amendments to this [Presidential] order as the current bonuses are outdated."

 

The Minister, who is also the president of the country's Football Association and a close personal friend of Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, claimed that the money awarded for medal wins is an additional motivation for Russia's top athletes and will be allocated from a special Olympic foundation funded by the Government.

 

In contrast, British medallists are not rewarded financially by the Government or British Olympic Association (BOA), although the high-profile champions like Dame Kelly Holmes become almost overnight millionaires thanks to endorsement deals.

 

Simon Clegg, the chief executive of the BOA, has spoken in the past of coming up with a scheme whereby medallists are rewarded for their success but any such scheme is unlikely to be in place before London 2012 at the earliest.

 

A spokeswoman for the BOA today told insidethegames: "There are no plans for British medallists to be given a financial bonus."

 

A delegation of up to 900, including 500 athletes, are due to represent Russia in Beijing, where, according to a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this week the Russians are estimated to finish third in the overall table with 79 medals, 13 less than Athens.

 

Mutko said: "We are pinning our hopes [to win medals] on events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, synchronized swimming, field and track, weightlifting, shooting and fencing."