Swimming: Cash as well as glory for New Zealand winners

New Zealand swimmers have been handed a get-rich-quick bonus incentive scheme aimed at keeping them and their coaches in the sport longer.

Victory at the world (long course) championships would earn the swimmer a $25,000 bonus. Breaking the world record in winning would add another $10,000. The swimmer's coach would receive up to $12,500.

The bonuses will be paid down to eighth place ($2000).

Looking further ahead, Olympic gold at Beijing would allow the swimmer to pocket a cool $50,000.

Before that, and perhaps more realistically, success at next year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games will be worth $15,000 down to $5000 for bronze.

And, at an even lower level, the incentives remain with a national long course record earning $1000 and a short course record $500.

The incentive scheme, promoted by Swimming New Zealand, follows the recent cash injection from Sparc aimed at lifting the sport's international standing.

While much of the funding will come from Swimming New Zealand coffers and some of the high performance money from Sparc, all competitive swimmers will pay a $5.50 levy.

"This initiative is very important to our programmes. It has been a crucial catalyst in the development of swimming in other countries," said Swimming New Zealand chief executive Paul Veric said. "This is a fantastic opportunity for swimmers and regions throughout the country to take collective ownership and involvement in our sport.

"This is an exciting scheme that has been cleverly devised by our national director of coaching, Clive Rushton."