Olympics: what can the athletes earn, besides eternal glory ?

Olympics: what can the athletes earn, besides eternal glory ?
Although the International Olympic Comité (IOC) does earn over 500,000,000 USD in television broadcast rights only /year on the Olympic Games, not a dime is going to the athletes themselves. That might be a very questionable decision from the IOC, certainly as it is thanks to the efforts and participation of the world wide athletes, the IOC receives its income.

Lucky for the sporters the National olympic federation  awards prizes which are disclosed before the tournament. So the cash prized awarded to athletes are different from country to country and your usualy big guns like United States only offer around  25,000 USD for winning the gold, 15,000 USD for silver and 10,000 USD for Bronze  while Azerbijan award 510,000 USD to the winner of gold,  255,000 USD for silver and 130,000 USD for bronze.

But you have to take into account that athletes who wins Gold for USA, UK, Australia etc can hit a jackpot in terms of endorsement deals which can be much more cash rewarding compared to just the one off payment.

Most of the countries award lump sum payments but some countries like Philippines and Thailand award cash prized which are staple income over 20 years. Only a handful of countries ward cash prized to silver and bronze medalists while most federations only award prized for gold winners.



















































































































































Highest cash rewards paid by different national olympic federations
NO# COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE
1 Azerbaijan $510,000 $255,000 $130,000
2 Kazakhstan $200,000 $150,000 $75,000
3 Thailand  $314,000 (over 20 years period)
4 Philippines  $237,000 (over 20 years period)
5 Kyrgyzstan $200,000
6 Latvia $190,000
7 Italy $180,000
8 Uzbikstan $150,000
9 Belarus $150,000
10 Ukraine $150,000
11 Russia $135,000
12 Australia  $126,000
13 Tajikistan  $63,000
14 France/Belgium $65,000
15 China  $31,400
16 USA  $25,000
17 Germany  $19,500
18 United Kingdom no cash prized awarded by Britain’s Olympic Committee
OTHER COUNTRIES Almost all the countries award cash prized to medalist in some form