Olympic Snippets - Money for gold winners

How Much Do Olympic Athletes Earn? Or how much do Olympic Gold Winners earn? Unless You’re Michael Phelps, Not Enough

Watching the 2008 Olympics, I began to wonder how much Olympic athletes earn—if anything—for competing in the games. After all, training for the Olympics (never mind competing) is at least a full-time job. The answer surprised me.

Most Olympians earn nothing for Olympic competition. That's why most Sport Superstars, especially footballers (soccer) opt not to participate in the Olympic Games because their is no money for them. Only individual sports tend to get sponsorship provide they deliver the result, like Phelps.

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 sponsorship 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 has promised to pay Phelps $1 million if he breaks the 1972 record for seven gold medals in a single Olympics. And he did it with style. Phelps won 8 gold medals in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. All together Phelps has 14 gold medals under his name.

All U.S. athletes can also earn a “medal bonus” from the U.S. Olympic committee for each medal won. The U.S. pays American medal winners $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze medals. Some countries, though not all, pay athletes similar medal bonuses.

The highest I found is Russia. This year Russia raised Olympic medal awards to $100,000 for gold, $60,000 for silver, and $40,000 for bronze.

The Philippines is paying $220,000 for a gold or rather their first Olympic gold medal.

Malaysia is offering RM1,000,000 for a gold, also their first Olympic gold medal. The closest Malaysia get is when Lee Chong Wei managed to go into the Men's Badminton Single final. Unfortunately, he lose the game to China's Badminton ace, Li Dan. For Malaysian case, they ever reward the gold medalist with land and title. It just a shame that their athletes could not deliver the gold medal.

While these 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.

Updates:
* Aug 21, 2008: Olympic Snippets - Money for silver winners
(even loser got paid)