In total, 46 BMWs were handed out to Russian medalists.

Despite Russia’s disappointing gold medal haul and all the drama that came with a doping scandal, Russian athletes that competed at the 2018 Winter Olympic games were given a heroes welcome which included the obligatory media news rounds, special greetings and medals from the Russian Prime Minister and President himself, Vladimir Putin, and 46 BMW Crossovers for medalists. Yes, each and every medalist got to take home a BMW Crossover with keys presented by Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

According to TASS on their report on this special BMW presentation,

The gold medalists received the keys to a BMW X6, the silver medalists were each presented with a BMW X5 and the bronze medalists took home BMW X4 during a ceremony attended also by head coaches of the Olympic squads and personal coaches alongside heads of winter sports federations.

Just check out some of the athletes getting their BMWs in the video below!

In total, 46 BMW crossovers were presented that day; 26 BMW X6s for figure skater Alinia Zagitova and the entire men’s Hockey team, 13 BMW X5s, and seven BMW X4s. According to Russia’s BMW site and some maths, that’s somewhere around 191M Rubles or about $3.4M worth of cars.

Noteworthy is that Gold medalist Alina Zagitova is only 15 years old and doesn’t even have her driver’s license yet. If you know anything about Alina it’s that a big motivation for her success stems from wanting a better life for her parents. In addition to the Gold medal, the sponsorships that’ll come her way, and the presumed support Russia’s Olympic team will provide her as she prepares for Bejing, how awesome is it to give your parents a new BMW at such a young age.

According to the video I posted above,

The purchase of the cars was reportedly sponsered by the Russian Olympians Support Fund which consists of large Russian entrepeneurs.

And this seems like a reward that the Russian Olympian’s support fund doles out every four years as according to their website,

In 2014, at the end of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, athletes received cash incentives. Olympic champions and winners were also awarded the SUV brand “Mercedes-Benz”.

Perhaps Mercedes and Russia had a falling out of some sort since Sochi?

Can you imagine showing up to the Men’s Hockey Team training facility assuming they stick together for a while, 25 White BMW X6s in the parking lot, things could get a bit confusing for them.