How Much Do Olympic Athletes Earn?
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With the Olympics in Rio upon us, you might wonder: How much do Olympic athletes earn? Are they paid for Gold? The answer may surprise you!
How much do Olympic athletes earn? What, if anything, are they paid for competing in the games? After all, training for the Olympics (never mind competing) is at least a full-time job.
As eyes are on the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, the answer still surprises me.
Most Olympians earn nothing for Olympic competition. Many countries’ Olympic teams, including the United States’, provide travel expenses to Olympic competitors, but even these funds don’t come directly from the government, rather a pool of private and corporate donors.
The only direct income a few Olympians receive for their competition is from corporate sponsorships. For an A-list Olympian like Michael Phelps, that means plenty of dough to support himself while he trains and competes from companies like Speedo. And, in addition to regular sponsorships, the swimwear outfit paid Phelps $1 million*in 2008 for breaking the*record*for seven gold medals in a single Olympics. He used the money to start a charity.
So how much do less famous competitors get paid? All U.S. athletes can earn a “medal bonus” from the U.S. Olympic committee for each medal won. The Committee pays American medal winners 25,000 USD for gold, 15,000 USD for silver, and 10,000 USD for bronze medals. Some countries, though not all, pay athletes similar medal bonuses:
2016 Olympic Medal Bonuses
Country Gold Silver Bronze
Singapore 741,000 USD 371,000 USD 185,000 USD
Indonesia 381,000 USD 152,000 USD 76,000 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
South Africa 37,000 USD 19,000 USD 7,000 USD
USA 25,000 USD 15,000 USD 10,000 USD
Germany 22,000 USD 17,000 USD 11,000 USD
Canada 15,000 USD 11,000 USD 8,000 USD
Based on 08/09/2016 exchange rates and rounded to nearest 1,000
Singapore and Indonesia*lead the world in medal rewards in 2016 with about 741,000 USD and*381,000 USD payouts for gold, respectively. Singapore has never won a gold medal, but has a shot in 2016 with its swimmer, Joseph Schooling.
In 2016, a Vietnamese athlete won the first gold medal*ever for his country and was awarded a 100,000 USD bonus, a huge windfall in a country where the average income is only 150 USD per month.
While the*UK does not offer specific medal bonuses, it does*devote*125 million GBP (162 million USD) of government and lottery funds to Olympic and Paralympic sports each year, some of which goes to annual athlete stipends. UK Olympic medalists get a stipend of*36,000 USD per year to train and compete.
But what about athletes that compete but don’t medal? Other than the thrill of competition, they have to fight hard for*other compensation.
In the US, track and field stars, each in the top 10 nationally in their events, make an average of only 16,553*USD per year.
The top 52 US swim team members can make*42,000 USD in stipends annually, but many of the over 500 US Olympians have to find other ways to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, IOC members get paid more to watch the Olympics (7,650 USD for 2.5 weeks of work) than most athletes will make competing in the games. According to the Washington Post:
Even USOC officials concede that, with the exceptions of the handful of megastars such as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte who rake in big endorsement money and those who play sports with lucrative professional leagues, most U.S. Olympic athletes cannot earn enough from their sports to make a living.
While medal*bonuses are a nice way to reward athletes financially for a big, big accomplishment, many will never enjoy the steady income that comes with a corporate sponsorship, making what they endure to compete all the more impressive.