Unfortunately most of the world’s population doesn’t even know where Belarus is situated, and those who have heard about this country associate it only with Russia. However, this modest country gave the world a great number of famous people – artists, musicians, writers, sportsmen.
Names of Belarusian sportsmen are well recognized everywhere. Just think of Olga Korbut – four time Champion in gymnastics, Igor Zhelezovsky – six time World Champion in skating, Vitaly Sherbo - who won 6 medals on Olympic Games in gymnastics, Nelli Kim (gymnastics), Vladimir Volchkov (table tennis), Max Mirnyi (tennis), Maria Sharapova and Viktoria Azarenka - world’s famous tennis players, and many others. It is them who did their best to establish the name of Belarus on the world’s summits. All in all, Belarusian athletes have won 156 Olympic medals over the course of Olympic history, including 80 gold ones.
Naturally outstanding sportsmen are well paid. The rating of the richest Belarusian sportsmen was made according to their sources of income.
1. Viktoria Azarenka
First place was given to Viktoria Azarenka – 22 year tennis player, who now lives in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. During 10 years of her professional career she earned about $11,855,300. Her income consists of prize money and dividends for participating in promotional activities.
2. Max Mirnyi
Maxim Mirnyi is on the second place with income of $9,758,000. The symbol of Belarusian tennis is a professional from 1996, but in terms of prize money his situation is more modest than Azarenka’s one.
3. Aleksandr Hleb
Aleksandr Hleb, a 30 year footballer, takes the third place. There’s no official data about his nowadays income, it ranges between $60,000-100,000 a month. According to unofficial information, at the pick of his career in the London “Arsenal”, Hleb’s base salary was 25 thousand pounds a week; with bonuses his earnings could reach 50 thousand.
So maybe Belarus is rather small and unknown country in the world, it can boast about good achievements in sport.
