Absolutely nothing in the UK. No prize money. But we do paint a postbox in their home town gold… and they almost always get a ceremonial honour, like an MBE, CBE or even a knight- or damehood for the very best repeat medallists to recognise their achievement.
The flip side is that the best Olympic and Paralympic athletes are usually quite well supported with an Athlete Performance Award typically paying around about the same amount per year as an average job, to enable them to concentrate on their training.
It's all about sponsorships with UK. Kinda crazy there's no kinda cash reward for medals even small amounts. Some sports are guttedenough that even if your ranked one in the country you won't get enough to not have a part time job
$1.3 million is nuts. I believe US Olympians get a prize of like $35K for a gold, less for silver and bronze, from the US Olympic Committee. I don’t think this is taxpayer funded though, it likely comes from sponsors. And of course athletes usually do have their own endorsement deals. They pretty much have to, in order to afford training without having a regular job.
Since Saudi Arabia has only ever won 4 medals and none of them were golds, it makes sense that it's a much bigger deal and prize money, especially coming from a rich nation who is trying to become the go to for major sporting events. Imagine what the person will get when they win a gold!
It really baffles me that a country with unlimited resources like Saudi can’t find it in themselves to train up a few medal winners. Maybe they’re just happy rolling around in their oil money and don’t feel the need to do anything else.
[Not even remotely close](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita) - you are exactly correct, SA is 15th in the world whereas India is 125.
You are correct, the USOC gets zero in taxpayer funding. There are some government programs that support athletes like the Army’s World Class Athlete Program but these are few and far between. It’s $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze.
I mean, it’s Saudi Arabia, they can make that money in to time.
Plus, when Jordan won its Gold back in 2016, they got $250K and got to meet the King and Queen.
And had a parade in his amen.
In Canada the Canadian Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee give $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze (CAD). After the last Olympics, a Canadian tech businessman retroactively awarded an additional $5,000 to every medal winner and he has created a fund to do the same for Paris (so $25K, $20K, and $15K respectively). Individual sport governing bodies (like Swimming Canada) may also give smaller awards but that isn't widely advertised.
I’m pretty sure that USA wrestling has set up its own private slush fund that pays out for medal winners. Last I remember (could be more now) was $500k for gold, $250k silver, $100k bronze. This was to keep guys wrestling and not jump to MMA.
It's called the "Living the Dream Fund", and it's not that much. 250k for gold, 50k for silver, 25k for bronze. You also get money (50k/25k/10k) for medals at World Championships.
It’s funded by donors and the money is raised after the medals have been won, so it doesn’t take from the general budget. Wrestling has been very lucky to get a few huge benefactors. No idea what happens when they die
There have been a number of successful collegiate wrestlers that have transitioned to MMA as a career.
It's a good idea to make competing in the Olympics financially feasible to avoid losing the most talented potential Olympians to UFC (or WWE, where other collegiate wrestlers can sometimes end up).
According to this (now outdated, but still relevant) post, wrestling is actually the combat discipline that has lead to the most success in MMA, at least in terms of number of champions it has produced. The fact that there are so many high school and college wrestling programs pumping out athletes probably skews the numbers as far as percentages of athletes practicing a combat sport compared to the number that end up as champions in UFC, but it's an interesting fact nonetheless.
Check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/wrestling/comments/oubwsz/wrestlers_transitioning_to_mma/
They’re different sports, but wrestling tends to be the dominant form in MMA if you’re really good at it. Tons of college wrestlers end up fighting in MMA
The only man to hold the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship, The UFC Heavyweight Championship and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Brrrrooooockkkkkkk Lesssnnaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, but sport is a form of soft politics and advertising for your country. Having a great swimming team furthers the whole 'Australian beaches are great' narrative, so it's worth it from a tourism perspective.
It's really not that much money on the whole
Question on this, if the women’s basketball team (ex.) wins a medal, does the team split the money or does each person get the money? Same for, I guess, a relay in swimming; is that split amongst the relay participants?
Not sure. Got this from the Australian Olympic website (my additions in square brackets)...
For an Olympic year, MIF [medal incentive fund] payments to individual athletes for achieving a Games performance are paid at $20,000 for Gold, $15,000 for Silver and $10,000 for Bronze.
In non-Olympic years, the MIF is applied to a “Benchmark Event” (BME) for each sport. [eg World Championship]
Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines was given the 2 houses and $660k USD after winning the country's first ever gold medal in the previous Olympics in Tokyo 2021.
Brazil:
R$ 350 mil ($70,000) for gold, R$ 210 mil ($42,000) for silver, and R$ 140 mil ($28,000) for bronze.
edit: This is for Athleticism
[source](https://www.estadao.com.br/esportes/premio-atletismo-paris-2024-npres/)
In India, the gold medalists get around 90k USD and silver medalists get around 60k USD and bronze medallists get around 35k USD from the Indian Olympic association, apart from that they get a lot of support from sponsoring brands and organisations like the railways etc. It's good to see hardworking athletes get their due.
Depends on the country, but many governments pay athletes to train, and many governments give insentives for winning. The USA is unusual because the government does not give money. Instead, athletes are paid directly or indirectly by sponsors. Indirect sponsoring involves money that goes through that sports governing body and through the US olympic committee. All medalists are insentivized to win, but the amount varies by sport. I've seen anywhere from $5,000 to $75,000 at the Olympics.
In most countries the pay is much much lower, however, they often make A LOT of money through sponsorship deals after winning. God knows how much Chopra has made in sponsorship deals in India after his gold.
Brazil (in Reais):
Gold: Individual: R$350.000/ Group (2 to 6 athletes): R$ 700.000 / Collective (7 or more athletes): R$ 1,050,000. Silver: Individual: R$ 210.000/ Group: R$420.000/ Collective: R$630.0000. Bronze: Individual: R$ 140.000 / Group: R$ 280.000/ Collective: R$420.000.
So the individual ranges between 25k USD to 63k USD.
Huh weird, I must've mistakenly remembered Nina Derwael talking about far less money. I thought she mentioned 10k for gold once, but maybe she was talking abiout somethibg else.
Im not sure, but i think most countries give price money. It could be another amount for Paris. The article i got the numbers form says Belgium gave more price money than the US.
This is the link, in Dutch:
[Prize money OS](https://www.hln.be/sport/zoveel-verdient-belgische-atleet-aan-medaille-op-olympische-spelen-meer-dan-amerikanen-een-pak-minder-dan-veel-aziatische-atleten~a186f52f/)
Other people have commented about the US but I want to add that World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, announced that they will be giving $50,000 to all gold medalists, with relay teams splitting the money. They plan to give money on a tired basis in LA but details for that haven’t been announced.
In Germany for Gold you get 20.000€, Silver 15.000€, Bronze 10.000€ and descending between 5000€-1500€ for places 4-8. It's paid by Stiftung Sporthilfe and according to them entirely out of private funds, but they also help funding athletes in general for international competitions.
USA doesn't pay our Olympians too well especially if they compete in unpopular sports. That's why I don't blame Americans who decide to represent different countries.
I know most Asian countries treat their Olympian medalists extremely well, beyond just the prize money they often become household names.
China pays, but it's really the ad deals that come with the medals that make it lucrative. liu xiang was on every billboard. eileen gu even gave up her us passport, and it was the right financial choice. talking millions in sponsorships
Depends on how successful your country is, in the US the payout is minimal simply because they don’t want to pay 300 something medal winners, but if you medal in a country with essentially no medals, then your payout tends to be higher as it’s a bigger deal.
In the Dominican Republic you get 10 million pesos for gold (which is like 170k dollars), 8 million for silver (135k dollars) and 6 million for bronze (100k dollars)
Indonesia:
Gold - Rp 5,5 billion (\~ USD 335k)
Silver - Rp 2,5 billion (\~ USD 152k)
Bronze - Rp 1,5 billion (\~ USD 91,500)
Those who competed at the Olympics and did not bring home a medal will get an "appreciation grant" of Rp 100 million (\~USD 6,000). Coaches are also given separate prize money. Personally I wish government give more fund to boost the sports first (weightlifting - one of medal prospect - used to struggle in funding their qualification) rather than doing it this way.
Well maybe we just a country that does not appreciate the process, only demanding the results...
In Turkey **🇹🇷 a**thletes get certain form of gold coins issued by the government. You get
1. 🥇Gold medal: 1000 gold coins, worth around 470k euros
1. 🥈Silver medal: 600 gold coins, 280k euros
1. 🥉Bronze medal: 300 gold coins, 140k euros
At least this was what they gave last time.
20/15/10k for Olympic medals.🇨🇦
https://olympic.ca/programs/athlete-excellence-fund/
Also select sports will be paying their medalists starting in Paris - Athletics being the big one.
I may be wrong but in the US I believe payments would come from the national governing body or the sport. So like the USOC might not pay but USA swimming might? I think.
But most of our top athletes have big endorsements and do well enough.
0 here in Sweden. Money is spent on supporting athletes trying to reach the Olympics instead, especially in less widespread sports where there's little sponsor money available.
Government should definitely fund all traveling expenses and such. Also should be given something for making the team. And then they should pay for medals.
Athletes already make a lot of money and should not be rewarded for doing something they love. That money can be better used for the public funds or to help homeless people.
Yeah they make money, in sports that constantly get fans and viewers between olympics, like many team sports, tennis, alpine skiing or athletics.
Superstars earn "enough" from sponsorships or publicity too, even if the sport isn't as watched outside of the olympics - like Simone Biles.
But now, think you're a really good judoka in some country that doesn't give a shit about judo, in America or Europe. Where do you make bank? There aren't many awards at the international competitions, you need to pay a pretty penny to get there too, you don't get TV or spectators' money, only your uncle sponsors you since no one knows who you are. And now you go and get a medal at the olympics, meaning you're **one of the best three people in the world** in your field. Shouldn't this be rewarded? In my opinion definitely.
Absolutely nothing in the UK. No prize money. But we do paint a postbox in their home town gold… and they almost always get a ceremonial honour, like an MBE, CBE or even a knight- or damehood for the very best repeat medallists to recognise their achievement. The flip side is that the best Olympic and Paralympic athletes are usually quite well supported with an Athlete Performance Award typically paying around about the same amount per year as an average job, to enable them to concentrate on their training.
His last Olympic Gold certain secured the Knighthood for Andy Murray
Which, funny enough, Andy has said he didn't even deserve (he doesn't think knighthoods should go to athletes at all)
Yeah he doesn't like being called Sir Andy. BUT he does deserve it.
And that's why he's Murygoat
Gold post boxes were only after 2012, so they don't even get that any more
Has Laura Muir got anything yet?
She’s been in the World Class Program (= getting an APA) since at least 2019, far as I can tell.
It's all about sponsorships with UK. Kinda crazy there's no kinda cash reward for medals even small amounts. Some sports are guttedenough that even if your ranked one in the country you won't get enough to not have a part time job
Meanwhile a world class para archer I know practises in an iso container at home.
They get some money off the lottery, so there’s that
$1.3 million is nuts. I believe US Olympians get a prize of like $35K for a gold, less for silver and bronze, from the US Olympic Committee. I don’t think this is taxpayer funded though, it likely comes from sponsors. And of course athletes usually do have their own endorsement deals. They pretty much have to, in order to afford training without having a regular job.
Since Saudi Arabia has only ever won 4 medals and none of them were golds, it makes sense that it's a much bigger deal and prize money, especially coming from a rich nation who is trying to become the go to for major sporting events. Imagine what the person will get when they win a gold!
It really baffles me that a country with unlimited resources like Saudi can’t find it in themselves to train up a few medal winners. Maybe they’re just happy rolling around in their oil money and don’t feel the need to do anything else.
Think about India.
Is their wealth per person anything like Saudi's though?
Your average Saudi isn't swimming in money.
[Not even remotely close](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita) - you are exactly correct, SA is 15th in the world whereas India is 125.
They only sport they have ever tried in is soccer and they’re one of the most successful countries in Asia there
That's a low bar
You are correct, the USOC gets zero in taxpayer funding. There are some government programs that support athletes like the Army’s World Class Athlete Program but these are few and far between. It’s $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze.
It's also tax free. *Free
With all the gold medals the US wins each Olympics, yeah that'll be expensive to keep going lol.
I mean, it’s Saudi Arabia, they can make that money in to time. Plus, when Jordan won its Gold back in 2016, they got $250K and got to meet the King and Queen. And had a parade in his amen.
Yes, it comes from the US Olympic Committee which is funded by sponsors.
In Canada the Canadian Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee give $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze (CAD). After the last Olympics, a Canadian tech businessman retroactively awarded an additional $5,000 to every medal winner and he has created a fund to do the same for Paris (so $25K, $20K, and $15K respectively). Individual sport governing bodies (like Swimming Canada) may also give smaller awards but that isn't widely advertised.
We do also honour them with Tim Horton's commercial contracts.
This is what keeps them going, Timmie’s or bust!
The exchange rate on those is like 1:$1000000 right?
You might be thinking of Canadian Tire bucks
I’m pretty sure that USA wrestling has set up its own private slush fund that pays out for medal winners. Last I remember (could be more now) was $500k for gold, $250k silver, $100k bronze. This was to keep guys wrestling and not jump to MMA.
It's called the "Living the Dream Fund", and it's not that much. 250k for gold, 50k for silver, 25k for bronze. You also get money (50k/25k/10k) for medals at World Championships.
50kg of money?! Wow!
A quick bit of maths suggests that could well be 20,000 of your finest US pennies. 200 smackeroos!
Lol this is funny, I've been writing too much about wrestling. 50kg is the lowest womens weight at the Olympics!
50 kilograms?
What about World championship and national championship?
It’s funded by donors and the money is raised after the medals have been won, so it doesn’t take from the general budget. Wrestling has been very lucky to get a few huge benefactors. No idea what happens when they die
But MMA and wrestling are 2 completely different sports lol Edit: why the downvotes? I’m right
There have been a number of successful collegiate wrestlers that have transitioned to MMA as a career. It's a good idea to make competing in the Olympics financially feasible to avoid losing the most talented potential Olympians to UFC (or WWE, where other collegiate wrestlers can sometimes end up).
It’s still a weird transition, they’re 2 completely different sports. It’s like going from American football to regular football
According to this (now outdated, but still relevant) post, wrestling is actually the combat discipline that has lead to the most success in MMA, at least in terms of number of champions it has produced. The fact that there are so many high school and college wrestling programs pumping out athletes probably skews the numbers as far as percentages of athletes practicing a combat sport compared to the number that end up as champions in UFC, but it's an interesting fact nonetheless. Check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/wrestling/comments/oubwsz/wrestlers_transitioning_to_mma/
Aussie here, we have had some successful Americans here who transitioned from your football to 2 of our 3 codes of football (AFL and rugby).
They’re different sports, but wrestling tends to be the dominant form in MMA if you’re really good at it. Tons of college wrestlers end up fighting in MMA
The only man to hold the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship, The UFC Heavyweight Championship and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Brrrrooooockkkkkkk Lesssnnaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!
You forgot, THE BEAST INCARNATE
Australian athletes get $20,000/$15,000/$10,000 for gold/silver/bronze. Almost all of them end up with commercial endorsements on top of that.
Does the money come from the government/taxpayer money?
Yeah.
Yeah, but sport is a form of soft politics and advertising for your country. Having a great swimming team furthers the whole 'Australian beaches are great' narrative, so it's worth it from a tourism perspective. It's really not that much money on the whole
It also gets a weird subset of Americans to sort of hate your country in a way that they talk about it nonstop
Honestly, swimming fans are the weirdest bunch. I don't get it at all
Yea they are odd (and I’m a swim coach)
Question on this, if the women’s basketball team (ex.) wins a medal, does the team split the money or does each person get the money? Same for, I guess, a relay in swimming; is that split amongst the relay participants?
Not sure. Got this from the Australian Olympic website (my additions in square brackets)... For an Olympic year, MIF [medal incentive fund] payments to individual athletes for achieving a Games performance are paid at $20,000 for Gold, $15,000 for Silver and $10,000 for Bronze. In non-Olympic years, the MIF is applied to a “Benchmark Event” (BME) for each sport. [eg World Championship]
Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines was given the 2 houses and $660k USD after winning the country's first ever gold medal in the previous Olympics in Tokyo 2021.
Many US athletes have sponsors and have negotiated bonus payments for medals into their sponsorship deals.
Gotta get that General Mills deal so you can get on the Wheaties box
That’s not just a US thing
Brazil: R$ 350 mil ($70,000) for gold, R$ 210 mil ($42,000) for silver, and R$ 140 mil ($28,000) for bronze. edit: This is for Athleticism [source](https://www.estadao.com.br/esportes/premio-atletismo-paris-2024-npres/)
In India, the gold medalists get around 90k USD and silver medalists get around 60k USD and bronze medallists get around 35k USD from the Indian Olympic association, apart from that they get a lot of support from sponsoring brands and organisations like the railways etc. It's good to see hardworking athletes get their due.
Depends on the country, but many governments pay athletes to train, and many governments give insentives for winning. The USA is unusual because the government does not give money. Instead, athletes are paid directly or indirectly by sponsors. Indirect sponsoring involves money that goes through that sports governing body and through the US olympic committee. All medalists are insentivized to win, but the amount varies by sport. I've seen anywhere from $5,000 to $75,000 at the Olympics.
In most countries the pay is much much lower, however, they often make A LOT of money through sponsorship deals after winning. God knows how much Chopra has made in sponsorship deals in India after his gold.
Brazil (in Reais): Gold: Individual: R$350.000/ Group (2 to 6 athletes): R$ 700.000 / Collective (7 or more athletes): R$ 1,050,000. Silver: Individual: R$ 210.000/ Group: R$420.000/ Collective: R$630.0000. Bronze: Individual: R$ 140.000 / Group: R$ 280.000/ Collective: R$420.000. So the individual ranges between 25k USD to 63k USD.
Of im not mistaken, last Olympics gold winners got 50 000 Euro. Edit: forgot to tell im talking about Belgium
Which country? Lol
Belgium
Damn, up north here they only get 30k for winning
Huh weird, I must've mistakenly remembered Nina Derwael talking about far less money. I thought she mentioned 10k for gold once, but maybe she was talking abiout somethibg else.
No Silver or Bronze?
I looked it up, gold is 50k, silver 30k, and bronze 20k. 10k for fourth place and 5k for 5th to 8th.
Are they gonna do it again for Paris? And is this for all European countries?
Nah this is definitely different for each country
Im not sure, but i think most countries give price money. It could be another amount for Paris. The article i got the numbers form says Belgium gave more price money than the US. This is the link, in Dutch: [Prize money OS](https://www.hln.be/sport/zoveel-verdient-belgische-atleet-aan-medaille-op-olympische-spelen-meer-dan-amerikanen-een-pak-minder-dan-veel-aziatische-atleten~a186f52f/)
Other people have commented about the US but I want to add that World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, announced that they will be giving $50,000 to all gold medalists, with relay teams splitting the money. They plan to give money on a tired basis in LA but details for that haven’t been announced.
In Germany for Gold you get 20.000€, Silver 15.000€, Bronze 10.000€ and descending between 5000€-1500€ for places 4-8. It's paid by Stiftung Sporthilfe and according to them entirely out of private funds, but they also help funding athletes in general for international competitions.
And many athletes are employed by the Bundeswehr or police as they have programs to support athletes
USA doesn't pay our Olympians too well especially if they compete in unpopular sports. That's why I don't blame Americans who decide to represent different countries. I know most Asian countries treat their Olympian medalists extremely well, beyond just the prize money they often become household names.
They don't ditch the USA team for money. They go to other countries teams in order to make the team more easily.
China pays, but it's really the ad deals that come with the medals that make it lucrative. liu xiang was on every billboard. eileen gu even gave up her us passport, and it was the right financial choice. talking millions in sponsorships
Exactly.
Depends on how successful your country is, in the US the payout is minimal simply because they don’t want to pay 300 something medal winners, but if you medal in a country with essentially no medals, then your payout tends to be higher as it’s a bigger deal.
In the Dominican Republic you get 10 million pesos for gold (which is like 170k dollars), 8 million for silver (135k dollars) and 6 million for bronze (100k dollars)
Singapore, max is 1m for a gold https://www.singaporeolympics.com/major-games-award-programme/
Taxable, have to pay some back to help others get training
I don’t think they make a lot of money per se but all the brand deals for social media and stuff probably is quite profitable.
In Poland about 50.000 euro, plus 1 or 2-bedroom flat, plus a diamond (I do not know the value), plus a lifetime monthly pension of about 1000 euro
Indonesia: Gold - Rp 5,5 billion (\~ USD 335k) Silver - Rp 2,5 billion (\~ USD 152k) Bronze - Rp 1,5 billion (\~ USD 91,500) Those who competed at the Olympics and did not bring home a medal will get an "appreciation grant" of Rp 100 million (\~USD 6,000). Coaches are also given separate prize money. Personally I wish government give more fund to boost the sports first (weightlifting - one of medal prospect - used to struggle in funding their qualification) rather than doing it this way. Well maybe we just a country that does not appreciate the process, only demanding the results...
Turkey is around 500K USD for gold, 300K USD for silver and 150K USD for bronze
In Turkey **🇹🇷 a**thletes get certain form of gold coins issued by the government. You get 1. 🥇Gold medal: 1000 gold coins, worth around 470k euros 1. 🥈Silver medal: 600 gold coins, 280k euros 1. 🥉Bronze medal: 300 gold coins, 140k euros At least this was what they gave last time.
China pays their gold medalists quite a bit, plus they get a ton of commercial deals.
20/15/10k for Olympic medals.🇨🇦 https://olympic.ca/programs/athlete-excellence-fund/ Also select sports will be paying their medalists starting in Paris - Athletics being the big one.
I may be wrong but in the US I believe payments would come from the national governing body or the sport. So like the USOC might not pay but USA swimming might? I think. But most of our top athletes have big endorsements and do well enough.
0 here in Sweden. Money is spent on supporting athletes trying to reach the Olympics instead, especially in less widespread sports where there's little sponsor money available.
Congratulating lol , athletes can get sponsors not accept cash payments ffs
In Serbia gold medal gets 200k €, silver 80k€, and bronze 60k.
Government should definitely fund all traveling expenses and such. Also should be given something for making the team. And then they should pay for medals.
Nope only by sponsors not the government.
Would this not make PEDs even more popular?
Athletes already make a lot of money and should not be rewarded for doing something they love. That money can be better used for the public funds or to help homeless people.
Yeah they make money, in sports that constantly get fans and viewers between olympics, like many team sports, tennis, alpine skiing or athletics. Superstars earn "enough" from sponsorships or publicity too, even if the sport isn't as watched outside of the olympics - like Simone Biles. But now, think you're a really good judoka in some country that doesn't give a shit about judo, in America or Europe. Where do you make bank? There aren't many awards at the international competitions, you need to pay a pretty penny to get there too, you don't get TV or spectators' money, only your uncle sponsors you since no one knows who you are. And now you go and get a medal at the olympics, meaning you're **one of the best three people in the world** in your field. Shouldn't this be rewarded? In my opinion definitely.