We recently reported how Hong Kong individual gold medalists at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo will be given a payout of HK $5 million (~$644,000 USD), an increase of over 66% from the amount offered at the 2016 Games in Rio.
This led us to take a look as to other nations’ medal bonuses paid by Olympic Committees to be given to those Summer Olympic Games athletes who work their way onto the podium in Tokyo, keeping in mind that these OC-paid medal payments aren’t the only way Olympic athletes are funded.
The United Kingdom, for example, does not offer specific medal bonuses but rather devotes approximately $162 million USD of government and lottery funds to Olympic and Paralympic sports each year. (Money Under 30)
Olympic sports such as badminton, basketball and surfing, which do not receive elite funding by UK Sport, are able to apply for up to £500,000 of financial help from a new “aspiration fund” set up by the government. (The Guardian)
Another example is monetary benefits bestowed upon members of the United States’ national swimming team, including tiered monthly stipends depending on pro, NCAA or high school status.
Bottom line, medal payments are just one reward for the physical, mental and financial sacrifices made by athletes around the world whose dream is to hear their anthem played in front of the biggest sporting audience.
Olympic Medal Rewards per Nation as of 2019
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Singapore | 1,000,000 USD | 500,000 USD | 250,000 USD |
| Indonesia | 746,000 USD | 378,000 USD | 188,000 USD |
| Kazakhstan | 250,000 USD | 150,000 USD | 75,000 USD |
| Azerbaijan | 248,000 USD | 124,000 USD | 62,000 USD |
| Italy | 166,000 USD | 83,000 USD | 55,000 USD |
| Hungary | 125,000 USD | 89,000 USD | 71,000 USD |
| Russia | 61,000 USD | 38,000 USD | 26,000 USD |
| France | 55,000 USD | 22,000 USD | 14,000 USD |
| USA | 37,500 USD | 22,500 USD | 15,000 USD |
| South Africa | 37,000 USD | 19,000 USD | 7,000 USD |
| Germany | 22,000 USD | 17,000 USD | 11,000 USD |
| Canada | 15,000 USD | 11,000 USD | 8,000 USD |
| Australia | 13,800 USD | 10,350 USD | 6900 USD |
Some data courtesy of Money Under 30.
where is uzbekistan?
They pay 200k USD for gold
Belgium is similar to France and there are additional prizes for 4th and a top 8.
No wonder Santo moved to italy.
Australia is cheapo
Wait a minute. How much did schooling get for gold in 2016? Is that an NCAA grey area?
“College athletes who are representing their country may accept prize money from their country’s Olympics governing body (in the United States, that would be the United States Olympic Committee). There is no limit to the award money that the governing body can provide for the Olympics.”
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/olympians-made-here
Mark Emmert actually commented specifically on the Schooling case: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2016/09/08/mark-emmert-ncaa-olympic-payout-athletes-joseph-schooling-katie-ledecky-simone-manuel/90069230/
Where is the Chinese money?
Correction: Singapore awards prize money in Singapore dollars S$1,000,000 (~740,000 USD) for gold, S$500,000 (~370,000 USD), etc. Indonesia payout is misleading too because they offer lifetime pensions.
Wow! I was expecting larger amounts of money! Why are paying so little to these people?!
Is there some ideology behind paying such small prize money compared to top paying countries?
Even if we payed 1mil for a medal, it would add up to only 133mil in Rio. In my opinion, that’s nothing!
Different countries distribute money in different ways. As other commenters have pointed out, some countries provide support through different buckets rather than a one-time payout, like ongoing funding or pensions.
Different countries also value sport differently. Different countries have to pay out hundreds of medalists, whereas some might only have to pay out one or two.