So, how much can an athlete at the Paris Olympics earn for winning medals?
1. Apart from a medal, a stuffed toy of the Olympics mascot and a “mysterious” box containing the official event poster, some medalists receive additional financial rewards for their efforts.
2. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not give out any prize money for winning medals, many nations reward their own athletes who have won any medal with bonuses.
Apparently Hong Kong followed by Singapore are the nations handing out highest amount of money to their sportspersons winning a medal at this Paris Olympics in 2024.
Gold medalists are to receive 6 million Hong Kong dollars ($768,000), Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, Chan Kwok-ki, announced early in July this year. Silver and bronze medalists can earn HK$3 million and HK$1.5 million, respectively.
Singapore gives their Olympic medalists 1 million Singapore dollars ($745,300) for gold, SG$500,000 for silver and SG$250,000 for bronze. So far, this city-state has only dispensed the top cash bonus to one athlete, namely, Joseph Schooling. The retired swimmer had defeated the United States’ Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly at the Rio Olympics in 2016 to win gold.
There are other governments dangling six-figure cash rewards for their gold medalists such as Israel, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. France is hosting the Olympics 2024 and thus bumped up its cash incentives--giving French Gold medalists a chance to receive 80,000 euros ($86,528)--that is 15,000 euros more than what it offered at the Tokyo Olympics.
There is money given to athletes who don't win any medals as well!
Germany’s Sports Aid Foundation hands out cash prizes till up to eighth-place finishers at the Olympic Games. Gold medalists will receive 20,000 euros.
India’s Olympic athletes receive monetary rewards from both the government and its national sports body, according to local media. The government give gold medalists 7.5 million rupees ($90,000) while the Indian Olympic Association separately offers 10 million rupees.
There are nations such as Kazakhstan who apart from cash rewards also give apartments to their Olympic medalists. Malaysia has some private companies announcing a combination of cash plus luxury apartment to their medal winners. Malaysian medal winners are assured a foreign made car as well.
At the other end of the spectrum--athletes from Great Britain, Norway and a handful of other countries do not receive any direct cash bonus for placing on the podium.
See a latest medal tally of each nation at the Paris Olympics at
https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/medals
See Olympics website article on box containing....a poster for Olympic medalists
https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-2024-olympics-award-athletes-podium-medals-poster-mascot
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