Jelena Ostapenko's state funding was taken away a few days ago but the government now made a U-turn on the decision.
She is set to continue receiving state funding after the Latvian government received heavy criticism for their decision. Initially, Ostapenko along with several athletes was cut from state-funding programs due to competing in competitions where Russian and Belarusian players competed as well.
The player released a statement after the decision explaining that she will continue her career despite losing state funding which garnered widespread praise. Now she'll be reinstated as an athlete who will receive funding after the government made amendments to their own decision from a few days ago.
Evaluating the circumstances related to the withholding of financial benefits for athletes of the Latvian Olympic team Aļona Ostapenko, Tom Skujiņš and Kristas Neiland, as well as listening to the opinion of the Latvian Cycling Federation and the Latvian Tennis Union, the Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Latvian Olympic Committee has prepared amendments to the agreement on the state financial support for the athletes of the Latvian Olympic team.
The statement of the Ministry further stated that the new amendments will make sure that the full sum for athletes will be given to them alone indicating that there might have been some problems with that in the past.
The amendments from today foresee preventing the withholding of benefits for the mentioned athletes and will ensure the full amount of funding.
Ostapenko will play at the Miami Masters next after playing at the Indian Wells Masters this week. She'll be glad to continue because she explained in her response that she doesn't get to choose where she plays or who plays with her. She rightfully explained that this cut of state funding means that she would need to quit tennis and that's not going to happen.
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