Winning an Olympic gold medal can be life-changing.
Depending on the athlete’s nationality, it can also be pretty lucrative.
Athletes who win individual gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics while representing Malaysia, Morocco or Serbia will receive upwards of $200,000 from their country’s government or national Olympic committee, according to a survey of medal payouts conducted by USA TODAY Sports. At least six other countries − including Italy, which won 10 golds in Tokyo − are offering payouts north of $100,000. And some offer added perks, like apartments and vacation vouchers, or extra money if an athlete breaks an Olympic record.
Particularly for athletes in less popular Olympic sports, where endorsement and sponsorship deals are harder to come by, the medal money can wind up making a huge difference.
‘If I get first vs. fourth in this race, which is a matter of 0.3 seconds, that determines what apartment I live in next year,’ U.S. canoe athlete Nevin Harrison said at a media event earlier this year. ‘So it’s an added pressure. It’s not just, ‘Oh, people are going to be really excited vs. disappointed.’ It’s, ‘Do I pay my bills or not?”
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Harrison received $37,500 from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for winning a gold medal at the 2021 Games, part of $13.2 million the USOPC distributed to athletes for medal performances in Tokyo and at other qualifying events.
How much do Team USA athletes get paid for winning an Olympic medal?
The payments offered through what the USOPC calls ‘Operation Gold’ are unchanged for 2024. Athletes will earn $37,500 for every gold medal in Paris, $22,500 for every silver and $15,000 for each bronze.
Those figures are slightly below the norm, among the countries surveyed by USA TODAY Sports − though the U.S. usually has to pay out more medal bonuses because it usually wins more medals. Team USA finished atop the Tokyo Olympics medal table, for example, with 39 golds, 41 silvers and 33 bronzes.
USA TODAY Sports contacted the national Olympic committees of 40 countries to ask about their medal payouts, of which 25 responded. On average, the 25 respondents said they will pay athletes the equivalent of $95,000 for gold, $55,000 for silver and $39,000 for bronze. (The amounts are generally paid in the host country’s currency but have been converted into U.S. dollars for consistency.)
Which countries pay their athletes the most for winning Olympic medals?
The two known highest-paying countries at the last Summer Olympics − Chinese Taipei and Singapore − did not respond to multiple messages seeking updated information. Singapore said it would pay an athlete $1 million if he or she won gold in Tokyo. Chinese Taipei said it would reward its lone individual gold medalist, weightlifter Hsing-Chun Kuo, with roughly $716,000.
Many countries said they offer separate payout structures for medalists in team events. And some pay their athletes even if they fall shy of the podium. Germany, for example, offers payouts for anyone who finishes in fourth through eighth. Morocco has medal bonuses for gold ($200,525) and silver ($125,328) that are among the highest in USA TODAY Sports’ survey, but they also offer bonuses for every placement, all the way down to those who finish 32nd.
Perhaps the most interesting medal payout plan for the 2024 Games comes from Poland, which is going above and beyond as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of its first Olympic performance.
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According to a spokesperson for the Polish Olympic Committee, any athlete who wins a medal in Paris will receive between $39,974 (for bronze) and $64,958 (for gold) as well as an investment diamond, a vacation travel voucher for two people valued at roughly $25,000, and ‘a painting painted by respected and talented Polish artists.’ (The grades of the diamonds and subjects of the paintings have not been determined.)
Gold medalists will also get a significant added perk: A free place to live. Each Polish gold medalist will be given a two-bedroom apartment in the Warsaw metropolitan area.
‘The apartments will be handed over to the medalists for use at the end of 2025 or at the beginning of 2026, so we cannot estimate their value today,’ the Polish Olympic Commitee spokesperson wrote in an email. ‘It will be a newly built Olympic housing estate and all Polish Olympic champions will live in the same housing estate and even in the same building.’
Poland won four gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics and two at the previous Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
