How much does someone who wins a medal at the Olympics earn?

Those who compete in the Olympics, even in the event of victory, are not paid in any way by the International Olympic Committee – which organizes and manages the event. The individual participating countries – just over 200 at Paris 2024 – are, however, free to decide whether and how to remunerate their athletes and what prizes to give in case of bronze, silver, and gold medals. Among the most generous nations in this sense, and which make the rewards known, is Saudi Arabia, which at the last Olympic Games would have given the equivalent of 1.2 million euros to one of its athletes who had won silver. Another country quite generous with its Olympic medalists is Singapore, which offers an amount equivalent to 600,000 euros for each gold won by a single athlete. The sum is halved for silver and reduced to a quarter for bronze.

These economic rewards exist thanks to an incentive plan in place in the country since the 1990s, which provides bonuses for every continental and international competition, based on its relevance. The funds come from sponsors, donations, and a percentage of profits from gambling. However, as the New York Times clarified, this is not – as in most cases – a net amount, and Singapore also requires 20 percent of the total to be donated to charity by the athlete. Other countries that offer amounts exceeding 200,000 euros for a gold medal are Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Azerbaijan. The United States, on the other hand, provides approximately 30,000, 18,000, and 12,000 euros respectively for gold, silver, and bronze winners. The fact remains that for many other nations – especially those notoriously less transparent – this data is unknown, but it is likely that considerable rewards are offered.

The Value of Olympic Medals

In 2021, Italy decided to increase the prizes awarded for Olympic medals by 20 percent – given in this case for each individual athlete. Giovanni Malagò, president of the national Olympic committee, called this decision «a necessary act». For Paris 2024, as for the previous Olympics, Italy awards 60,000 euros gross for a bronze, 90,000 for a silver, and 180,000 for a gold. To compare, with the victory at the 2020 European Football Championship, each player of the national team received 250,000 euros gross. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Italian athletes who won a medal totaled 70 (18 golds, 16 silvers, and 36 bronzes): rewarding all winners, the national Olympic committee spent just under 7 million euros. These monetary sums are usually supplemented by earnings from various types of sponsorships. This happened, for example, in India with the last Olympics: the contributions offered by the country do not differ much from those of Italy, but having very few medal-winning athletes – compared to its population of over 1 billion – those who manage to reach the top step of the podium can indirectly achieve very high earnings. Athlete Neeraj Chopra at Tokyo 2020 was the only Indian to win gold – in javelin throw. Since the country does not have many top-level athletes, the medal earned Chopra enormous media attention – which significantly increased his earnings. There are also countries that offer other benefits in addition to or instead of monetary rewards: in South Korea, for example, a gold medal allows you to avoid military service. For the first Olympic gold of the Philippines, achieved by Hidilyn Diaz at Tokyo 2020 in weightlifting, the country – in addition to a cash prize – donated several properties to the athlete, along with free air travel for life.

Other countries, such as Norway, the United Kingdom, or New Zealand, do not offer anything to their winners, although they provide forms of support and subsidies to athletes and federations – often still useful and effective. For his silver in rowing at Tokyo 2020, Norwegian Kjetil Borch said he only expected «a letter from the king and the prime minister», and jokingly asked how long it took to obtain citizenship in Singapore, given its generosity towards Olympic medalists. In these cases, if one really wanted to, it would be better to auction off the Olympic medals, which are usually valued at several tens of thousands of euros. Melting them down, however, would not be a good idea, as the gain would be negligible. The gold content in Olympic medals, in fact, is negligible: in those of Paris 2024, out of a total of 529 grams, only six grams are gold – just over 1% of the total. Until the Stockholm Games in 1912, the medals obtained for first place were almost entirely made of gold. But subsequently, cost-saving policies were implemented, and from Antwerp 1920, the amount of gold present decreased. Today, apart from the bronze ones, the medals are made of pure silver, and at most they are gold-plated. However, those of Paris 2024 are adorned with details that could slightly increase their value, especially if they were to be auctioned, such as a piece of iron from the original frame of the Eiffel Tower.