Cars, Cows, & Condos: Just How Much Do Olympic Athletes Make For Winning Medals?
With the Paris 2024 Olympics well into its first week, medalists - in addition to their medals and all the free condoms they can manage to use - are handed an official Olympics mascot and a "mystery" box containing the official event poster.
But wait, there's more!
While the IOC doesn't hand out prize money for winning medals, several countries hand out all sorts of bonuses, CNBC reports. Here's a table showing who gets what, from where.
Measured in US Dollars, gold medalists from Hong Kong, for example, receive $768,000 per medal - followed by Singapore at $745,000 and Indonesia at $300,000. Hong Kong's massive payout is a 20% jump from the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
US gold medalists receive just $38,000 per medal in comparison.
There are already several competitors from Hong Kong who have won big payouts.
This year, the city is slated for hefty pay outs due to an early crop of medals in swimming and fencing. Vivian Kong won Hong Kong’s first medal at the Paris Games, topping the podium in the women’s epee individual event. Fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long also won gold in the men’s individual foil event, while swimmer Siobhan Bernadette Haughey bagged a bronze medal in the women’s 200-meter freestyle.
Singapore gives Olympic medalists 1 million Singapore dollars ($745,300) for gold, SG$500,000 for silver and SG$250,000 for bronze. The city-state has only dispensed the top cash bonus to one athlete: Joseph Schooling. The now retired swimmer defeated the United States’ Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly at the Rio Olympics in 2016 to win gold. -CNBC
Cars, Cows and Apartments
In addition to, or instead of, cash, sever countries are giving athletes unconventional prizes, such as apartments or cars from both government and private companies. Kazakhstan, for example, is giving $250,000 per gold medal, $150,000 for silver, and $75,000 for bronze - as well as apartments.
While Malaysia is offering $215,000 for a gold medal ($150k for silver, and $75k for bronze), some private companies are offering luxury-serviced apartments or additional cash. Plus, anyone who gets a podium finish will also receive a "foreign-made car," according to local media reports citing the country's Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh.
South Korean gold medalists receive pensions in addition to the prize money - and can choose either a lifelong monthly pension of a million won (US$762), or a lump sum of 67.2 million won (US$49,000). Silver medalists can receive 35 million won, and a bronze medalist will get 25 million won. Athletes may also receive free drinks and transportation (oh boy!).
Hong Kong's public transit operator MTR Corporation is giving free lifetime tickets to the city's medalists.
Besides 200,000 Polish zloty ($50,374) from the Polish Olympic Committee, Klaudia Zwolińska is also reportedly poised to receive a painting, a holiday voucher, a scholarship and a diamond for claiming silver in the women’s canoe slalom K1 competition.
Olympians have often been gifted quirky tokens of appreciation.
A local chain pledged that athletes who represented Malaysia at the Tokyo Games would get free food and teh tarik for life, according to local media. Teh tarik is a hot milk tea beverage that is popular throughout Southeast Asia. -CNBC
And while Jpaanese table tennis player Kasumi Ishikawa was gifted 100 bags of rice after winning silver at Tokyo, Indonesian badminton gold medalists Apriyani Rahayu and Greysia Polii reporetedly received five cows, a meatball restaurant and a new house.
Unfortunately for athletes from Great Britain, Norway and several other countries, they get nothing aside from their medals and bragging rights.