These 12 Countries Will Pay Their Olympians Six-Figure Bonuses For Winning Gold Medals

Americans who stand atop the podium in Beijing will score a cash prize of $37,500—not bad, but a pittance relative to what some other nations are offering.

MMost athletes who compete at the Olympics can only hope to break even as they hunt for modest stipends and scarce sponsorships that often don’t cover the costs of years of training, equipment, medical and travel expenses. Still, the lucky few who manage to climb the Olympic podium could be in line for a hefty bonus check—as long as they’re from the right place.

Dozens of countries are offering bonuses to athletes who claim one of the 327 medals available across the 15 sports at the Beijing Olympics, which officially kick off with today’s opening ceremony. Ahead of the Games, Forbes reached out to the national Olympic committees or government sports ministries of all 91 countries and territories set to compete and was able to confirm that at least 32 will pay cash prizes for medals; only four of the respondents do not plan to pay their athletes some sort of bonus explicitly for winning medals.

Among the most generous nations is Turkey, which is willing to pay roughly $380,000 for a gold medal. And Hong Kong, which competes at the Olympics independently of China, is promising the equivalent of $642,000. But those are mostly theoretical exercises: Neither delegation has ever won a Winter Olympic medal.

The dominant Team USA, meanwhile, will pay $37,500 for each gold medal, $22,500 per silver and $15,000 per bronze. That money is on top of the grants and benefits like health insurance that are more widely available to Team USA athletes, all of it paid by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which fundraises through a nonprofit foundation and does not receive federal funding. (You can exhale, taxpayers.)

THE VALUE OF GOLD

Athletes from these 30 delegations are eligible to receive a bonus from their national Olympic committee or government for winning a medal at the 2022 Games. The figures below are for a gold medal in an individual event in Beijing and have been rounded to the nearest $1,000 (USD) based on the exchange rate as of January 28.

The U.S. lands in the middle of the pack on the global medal-bonus spectrum, based on Forbes’ reporting, paying more than twice as much for gold as countries like Australia and Canada and roughly half as much as nations like France and Romania. But countries’ bonus schemes can differ in ways other than the amount. Some countries, like the U.S., pay out equal amounts to individual-sport and team-sport athletes while other countries offer less to groups. Slovakia, for instance, is promising roughly $56,000 for a gold medal in an individual sport and an average of roughly $17,000 for each member of a gold-medal-winning team—although the exact amount can rise or fall a bit for any particular team-sport athlete, depending on how the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee judges their importance to their team.

While medal bonuses are the domain of national Olympic committees in many countries—albeit sometimes with government backing—other nations cut out the middleman and disburse the bonuses directly through their sports ministry or another government agency. In Slovenia, Olympic gold medalists can collect through both routes: about $22,000 from the national Olympic committee and roughly $62,000 per gold medal from the government.

Some countries consider the medal bonuses taxable income while others make that money exempt. That’s no small perk in Denmark, which has one of the world’s highest tax rates but awards roughly $15,000 tax free for individual gold medals. The rewards can even extend to the coaches and support staff of some delegations, such as South Korea. While its Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will give the equivalent of $39,000 to a gold medalist in a team event and $52,000 to an individual champion, a head coach can take home even more, up to $66,000.

Not every country offers financial compensation explicitly for medal winners. Britain and Iceland are among those that don’t, although they provide other sorts of grants to athletes. Norway, which topped the medal table at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics with a total of 39, also doesn’t pay for medals.

Then there are countries like Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which plan to award bonuses to any athletes who earn medals but will wait until after the fact to determine the exact amounts. China and Russia, two Olympic powerhouses, have reportedly paid medalists at past Games but were among the delegations that did not respond to requests for comment about their plans for Beijing.

Here are 12 countries and territories offering six-figure payouts for gold medalists in individual sports; the prizes are listed in U.S. dollars, converted from the local currency at the exchange rate as of January 28.

Hong Kong

Gold Medal Bonus: $642,000

Hong Kong hasn’t captured a medal in its five previous Winter Olympic appearances, but it did give out the same big prize at the Summer Games last year. Cheung Ka-long, a fencer, won gold in men’s foil in Tokyo, earning 5 million Hong Kong dollars (about $642,000 at the current exchange rate) under the city’s Henderson Land Commendation Scheme for Elite Athletes.

Turkey

Gold Medal Bonus: $383,000

Turkey lists its medal bonuses in republic gold—a 22-karat-gold coin—as opposed to the country’s official currency, the lira. A first-place finish in an Olympic individual event is worth roughly $380,000, and athletes can earn another half that amount for setting an Olympic record. Individual gold medalists can also secure a monthly pension of twice the net minimum wage. But while Turkey has competed at 17 Winter Games, it has yet to win a medal on snow or ice.

Malaysia

Gold Medal Bonus: $238,000

This is just the second Winter Games for Malaysia, which will be represented by skiers Aruwin Salehhuddin and Jeffrey Webb. If they somehow manage to claim a gold medal, they will be eligible for a one-time payment of about $238,000 from the government, plus a lifetime monthly allowance of roughly $1,200. Some other countries similarly offer pensions to medalists, including Croatia, which has had more success on the snow, with 11 medals in its Winter Olympic history. It gives medalists a lifetime allowance starting at age 45: 100% of the average net salary in the country for gold medalists (roughly $1,100 in 2021), falling to 80% for silver medalists and 60% for bronze.

Italy

Gold Medal Bonus: $201,000

Italy is an Olympic power, finishing seventh in total medal count at last year’s Tokyo Summer Games with 40 and 13th at the last Winter Games, in PyeongChang in 2018, with ten. That makes its bonuses all the more eye-popping: Paying roughly $212,000 per gold, $106,000 per silver and $71,000 per bronze at last summer’s exchange rate—and the same for athletes in team events—the nation shelled out more than $9 million for its haul in Tokyo.

Cyprus

Gold Medal Bonus: $168,000

Tiny Cyprus has competed at every Winter Olympics since 1980, with skier Yianno Kouyoumdjian set to race in Beijing. While the country has never claimed a medal on snow, the Cyprus Sports Organization will pay for a finish anywhere in the top 16: roughly $168,000 for a gold medal, $140,000 for silver and $123,000 for bronze, all the way down to $11,000 for 16th place.

Latvia

Gold Medal Bonus: $159,000

Latvia will pay Olympians up to a certain amount based on the government’s budget. This year, athletes will receive up to €142,288 (roughly $159,000) per gold in individual sports, and teams will receive up to €426,862 ($477,000) to divvy up. And like other countries including Germany and Liechtenstein, Latvia pays for finishes a few spots past the podium; its payments extend through sixth place.

Hungary

Gold Medal Bonus: $156,000

In Hungary, even bronze medalists receive nearly six figures in bonuses: 28.5 million forints, or roughly $89,000. (The price tag for a silver is $111,000.) The payments extend through the top eight places in each event.

Bulgaria

Gold Medal Bonus: $143,000

Individual-sport athletes from Bulgaria are eligible to receive up to about $143,000 per gold medal, depending on the budget of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. To date, though, athletes have always received the maximum, the government says.

Lithuania

Gold Medal Bonus: $143,000

Lithuania’s government anchors its medal bonuses to the country’s basic social benefit, a monthly amount used in various social security calculations. Beijing individual gold medalists are entitled to 3,049 BSB, or about $143,000 at the current level. Eighth place is worth 153 BSB, or about $7,000.

Kosovo

Gold Medal Bonus: $123,000

Kosovo is a newcomer to the Olympic scene, competing at just its second Winter Games with a contingent of two skiers, Kiana Kryeziu and Albin Tahiri. The country’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport will pay about $112,000 for each individual gold medal, and the national Olympic committee will tack on roughly $11,000. Athletes can also pick up another $112,000 from the government for an Olympic-record performance. It’s not the only country that offers additional pay for a record breaker. The Portuguese government, for instance, will pay about $56,000 per gold medal, plus about $17,000 for a record.

Estonia

Gold Medal Bonus: $112,000

The Estonian Olympic Committee bestows roughly $112,000 for each individual-sport gold, $78,000 for silver and $50,000 for bronze. In addition, a gold-medal performance boosts an athlete’s stipend from the committee. While all “A-level” athletes each month get a salary of about $2,800 and roughly $2,500 for training, gold medalists see their monthly wage rise to $4,500 for two years, with the same preparation funding.

Czech Republic

Gold Medal Bonus: $110,000

The Czech Republic has 116 athletes competing in Beijing—tying with Sweden for the ninth-largest delegation at the Games—although 48 come from its men’s and women’s hockey teams. Team-sport athletes receive smaller bonuses from the National Sports Agency than the $110,000, $82,000 and $55,000 that individual-sport athletes get for gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively.