COMP NEWS – Olympic athletes who come home with medals may also be returning with a payday – in some countries, quite large ones.

USA Today reports that many countries participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics offer lucrative compensation bonuses for their Olympic medalists. The range for these bonuses varies widely. Australia offers $14,674 to its athletes for each gold medal they return with. On the opposite end of the range, Singapore leads the pack with a pay-for-play structure that compensates a whopping $1 million USD for each gold medal.

Generally speaking, countries that historically take home more medals trend towards offering less in medal compensation to their athletes. Of course, those countries tend to generously fund their Olympic participants through their training regiment and top talent athletes often score lucrative advertising and branding deals. Some athletes will earn large paydays through earning numerous medals. The United States offers $37,000 for its gold medals – comparatively low to many competitors but leading in total medal count (gold, silver, and bronze) with 113 so far.

See below for an example of how much some athletes expect to take home so far:

Weightlifter Hsing-Chun Kuo of Chinese Taipei will receive roughly $716,000 for her gold in the 59 kg category. But go up one weight class and it’s clear how varied this can be.

 

Canada’s Maude Charron won at 64 kg, but that only earns her roughly $16,000. Italy’s Giorgia Bordignon will receive nearly $107,000, thanks to her silver medal. And Chinese Taipei’s bronze from Wen-Huei Chen will earn her more than $179,000.

Caeleb Dressel earned $187,500 just from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for his five golds. Two gold and two silver earned Katie Ledecky $125,000, and both will receive bonuses from USA Swimming on top of that.

Read the full story, along with a comprehensive list of compensation for medals by country, here.

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