Rinehart is the executive chairman of mining company Hancock Prospecting which has launched the Patron's Medal Achievement Incentive Fund.

The initiative will provide performance-based payments to Rowing Australia, Swimming Queensland, the Australian Swimmers' Association, Volleyball Australia, and Artistic Swimming Australia.

It is the only private performance initiative of its scale to benefit Australian Olympic and Paralympic medal winners, outside of Government and Australian Olympic Committee funding.

A total of AUD1.5 million (£767,000/$974,000/€890,000) will be allocated annually and is in addition to long-term athlete payments and programme support that each body already receives from the company.

At Paris 2024, highest-performing athletes can earn AUD20,000 (£10,000/$13,000/€11,800) for gold medals and AUD30,000 (£15,300/$19,500/€17,800) for world records.

For Para rowers and swimmers who do not receive prize money from their separate governing bodies, the Patron's Medal Achievement Incentive Fund is groundbreaking.

"Today's launch of this very special achievement fund is much welcomed by our athletes, their families, coaches and Australia wide," said Rowing Australia President Rob Scott.

"There is no other Patron who has been so generous with both their personal support and advocacy for our athletes, and it has been a great joy to work alongside Mrs Rinehart AO and see our rower’s performance improve and improve.

"The financial support Gina Rinehart AO and Hancock Prospecting has announced is, incredibly, on top of the recently reported AUD60 million (£30.7 million/$38.9 million/€35.6 million) investment she has already provided over the past decade that supports our fantastic world-class athletes."

Rinehart, who is worth around USD26.5 billion (£20.8 billion/€24.2 billion), made the AUD60 million investment earlier this month.

The donations are thought to be the largest contribution by a sole benefactor to an Olympic team in the world.

She ensures that money goes directly to athletes as well as supporting governing bodies with now 75 swimmers and 50 rowers receiving annual funding from the 69-year-old.

Last year, Rinehart pulled AUD15 million (£7.6 million/$9.7 million/€8.9 million) from Netball Australia after players aired concerns about wearing a uniform that had Hancock Prospecting's logo on it. 

Much of the disapproval surrounded the company's environmental impact, while others were also angered by comments made in the 1980s by company founder and Rinehart's father Lang Hancock.

Prior to his death in 1992, Hancock made multiple anti-indigenous statements including, "and when they had gravitated there, I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in the future, and that would solve the problem."

Rinehart began investing into Australian sport after the country's swimmers performed below expectations at the London 2012 Olympic Games, with just one gold medal.

Since then, Australia have improved to topping the swimming medals table at the most recent World Aquatics Championships with 13 titles.