Cash bonuses and bizarre rewards Olympic athletes receive for winning medals at the Games
Some countries are being very generous to their athletes during this year's Games by offering lucrative incentives for taking home gold, silver or bronze.
While you'd think that an Olympic medal would be enough to motivate an athlete, some home nations are giving them even more of a reason to go that extra mile.
The way it works is a nation's Olympic committee and government sports ministry will sometimes award prizes to athletes who win medals.
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And after Forbes exclusively reached out to all of the 206 countries and territories participating, they revealed that 33 will actually award cash prizes.
Out of that number, 15 said they will pay more than $100,000 (£77,750) to athletes who win the top prize.
Hong Kong, for instance, will award a gold medalist an eye-watering $768,000 (£597,300) and $380,000 (£295,500) for a silver medal.
Israel is also said to be offering a mega $275,000 (£213,900) for gold medalists and $192,000 (£149,000) for silver, along with $137,000 (£106,000) for bronze.
Meanwhile, the likes of Serbia will give their gold, silver and bronze medal winners a national pension, which will start from the age of 40.
As for the UK and Team GB, our athletes are not previewed to any bonuses, but are instead given grants.
Though the British Athletics happens to pay medal bonuses that are independent of the government.
A total prize pot of $2.4 million (£1.87 million) from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation is received by World Athletics every four years.
On the decision to award £38,700 in prize money to gold medallists, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe explained: "The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medallists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognising the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games.
“This is the continuation of a journey we started back in 2015, which sees all the money World Athletics receives from the International Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games go directly back into our sport.
“We started with the Olympic dividend payments to our Member Federations, which saw us distribute an extra $5 million (£3.9 million) a year on top of existing grants aimed at athletics growth projects, and we are now in a position to also fund gold medal performances for athletes in Paris, with a commitment to reward all three medallists at the LA28 Olympic Games.
“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is.”
Countries that pay most for winning gold
- Hong Kong - £587,300
- Israel - £213,000
- Serbia - £169,900
- Malaysia - £166,800
- Italy - £152,800
- Lithuania - £141,900
- Moldova - £133,300
- Latvia - £120,800
- Hungary - £120,000
- Bulgaria - £108,400
- Ukraine - £97,500
- Kosovo - £93,550
- Estonia - £85,000
- Czech Republic - £80,300
- Spain - £79,500
Anish Vij