Do athletes get paid for winning a medal at the Olympic Games?
Does winning gold, silver or bronze pay well at the Olympic Games?
World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field sports, announced this month that it will offer a $50,000 reward to athletes who win gold at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
This unprecedented move introduces an additional income source for some Olympians, who typically receive tens of thousands of dollars in cash from their home countries.
Until now, receiving prize money from the home countries was the only way to win money from Olympic success; the Games have traditionally been competed at for free by athletes.
NBC asked the Internal Olympic Committee (IOC) why athletes don’t get paid, to which they responded:
"Imagine if the IOC were to organize the Olympic Games on a for-profit business model," they explained. "The event would be limited to those sports that generate the most significant revenues, and it would not involve athletes representing teams from 206 NOCs. It would not be Olympic Games as we know them. Yet, it is precisely the tremendous range of sports and the global provenance of the athletes that distinguish the Olympic Games from other events and make them so successful. The Olympic Games are the only event that brings the entire world together in peaceful competition."
How much do US athletes earn at the Olympics?
However, as mentioned, athletes are rewarded from their country’s respective Olympic competition committee. CNBC published a 2021 report in which they revealed that United States competitors pocketed over $37,000 for a first-place finish.
As well as this, success at the biggest multi-sport event in the world undoubtedly brings sponsorship deals that athletes can benefit from, as well as various other marketing opportunities that come with a new-found level of fame after winning the most famous medal in the world.
What are the Olympic medals worth? Are they real gold?
The New York Times reported that “gold medals are required to be at least 92.5 percent silver, and are plated with about 6 grams of pure gold” which works out at $758 worth of precious metals.
Did you know that the @Paris2024 Olympic medals will contain iron once part of the Eiffel Tower?
— NOC UGANDA | CGA UGANDA (@Official_UOC) May 13, 2024
This year’s Olympic medals include a special part of Parisian history. Each Olympic medal will be infused with iron from the original Eiffel Tower, which was built for the 1889 pic.twitter.com/QV3Y0SYMFK
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As for the 2024 games, the medals will have something extra special inside: each one will showcase a hexagonal piece of the original wrought iron used to build Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
“What makes this Paris 2024 medal special is that it will feature an original part of the Eiffel Tower,” said Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee. “We wanted to offer all the medalists of Paris 2024, Olympic and Paralympic, a part of the Eiffel Tower from 1889.”
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