US gold medalist Nathan Chen celebrates at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on February 10.
Sebastian Boson AFP | Getty Images
The 2022 Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing and more than 200 medals have already been awarded to athletes from around the world.
Finishing the podium is a matter of national pride. For some winners, this also means taking a cash bonus and opening the door to rare multimillion-dollar sponsorship opportunities.
The International Olympic Committee does not pay medals, but many countries offer cash prizes to their athletes for the number of medals they win at the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics.
CNBC compiled the chart below, extracting information from various national Olympic committees, sports associations and the personal finance site Money Under 30.
The data show that the US Olympic and Paralympic Committees reward their athletes with $ 37,500 for each gold medal won, $ 22,500 for a silver medal and $ 15,000 for a bronze medal. Most of this prize money is not taxed unless athletes report gross income in excess of $ 1 million.
American athletes also receive other forms of support, such as health insurance, access to top-level medical facilities, and college training assistance.
The United States has sent more than 200 athletes to compete in Beijing. The US team so far has won 7 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals.
At the 2021 Summer Games, American athletes took home 39 gold, 41 silver and 33 bronze medals – with the highest number of medals in any country in Tokyo.
How much do other countries pay?
Some countries and territories provide much higher monetary incentives for their athletes to finish on the podium. Experts say some of them are an attempt to develop national sports cultures.
Singapore, for example, awards its gold medalists nearly 20 times more than the United States
Players who win their first individual gold medal for the city-state will receive Singapore $ 1 million ($ 737,000). The cash prize is taxable and the winning recipients must return part of it to their national sports associations for future training and development.
Kazakhstan pays its athletes about $ 250,000 for a gold medal, Italy gives about $ 213,000, the Philippines about $ 200,000, while Malaysia also offers solid prizes for its athletes. Hong Kong, which competes separately from China in the Olympics, offered Hong Kong $ 5 million ($ 641,000) last year for gold winners.
When Indian javelin thrower Niraj Chopra secured the country’s first gold medal in athletics in Tokyo last year, several politicians and corporate brands reportedly announced millions of rupees as a monetary reward for the athlete.
In addition to medal bonuses, other compensations are offered to winners in these countries. For example, when Philippine weightlifter Hidilin Diaz won the country’s first Olympic gold last year, she was reportedly offered two homes and free lifetime flights.
For starters, winning a spot on the Olympic team is not an easy feat, and athletes spend most of their time preparing for the Games – making it difficult to keep a full-time job.
In some sports, equipment, training, and access to training venues can also cost the athlete.
While athletes from larger, more competitive countries receive scholarships or training grants from their national sports associations, others retain various jobs or turn to crowdsourcing to fund their Olympic dreams.
The best performers also collect prizes by winning national and international tournaments.
How hard is it to be sponsored?
Only a handful of top athletes receive millions of dollars in approvals or sponsorship agreements before competing in the Olympics or after succeeding in the Games.
Snowboarder Sean White, for example, received his first sponsorship on board when he was 7, NBC Sports reported. After winning its first Olympic gold medal in 2006, snowboarding company Burton signed it to a 10-year contract, and White raised about $ 10 million a year in sponsorship, according to NBC.
Last year, American swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simon Byles received millions of approvals before the Summer Games, Forbes reported. Meanwhile, tennis star Naomi Osaka has reportedly earned $ 55 million in approvals in 12 months and has been named the highest paid athlete in history.
But making good deals is a rarity and hardly the norm.
Most U.S. athletes are not represented by sports agents, and some have no sponsors or approvals at all, according to a Forbes report.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the US owner of the rights to broadcast all summer and winter games until 2032.