As the curtain came down on the Paris Olympics late Sunday, the U.S. had racked up more medals than any other country, and the total payout for each gold, silver or bronze topped $8.6 million.
American athletes led the medal count with 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze. Counting each athlete in a team sport as well as individual winners, it came to 317 medals in all — 124 gold, 146 silver and 47 bronze, according to an analysis by Wethrift, an online discount platform.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee pays American athletes who bring home the gold $37,500, while silver medalists get $22,500 and bronze winners $15,000.
The U.S. awarded a total of $8.64 million for the medals won, making it the country with the highest overall payout. Italy followed closely, paying $8.38 million for 71 medals, with nearly $200,000 paid to each gold medalist.
On top of that, some American athletes received additional compensation from their sport’s governing bodies. Track and field pledged $50,000 to each gold medal winner for the first time ever, according to Front Office Sports. The U.S. swim team offered performance incentives and handed out $250,000 to 48 swimmers.
How much did countries pay out for Olympic medals?
Not all countries pay Olympic athletes for winning medals, Great Britain and Norway among them. Here are the totals for the top 10 after the U.S. and Italy, per the Wethrift analysis:
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France — 117 total medals, $6 million
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Spain — 75 medals, $5 million
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Serbia — 28 medals, $4.23 million
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Hungary — 26 medals, $3 million
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Israel — 12 medals, $2.56 million
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Japan — 114 medals, $2.1 million
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Hong Kong — 2 medals, $1.92 million
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Brazil — 52 medals, $1.74 million
What Olympic athlete made the most money?
Hong Kong and Singapore offer the highest payouts, by far, for Olympic winners. A gold medalist from Hong Kong, a country that has had four athletes reach the top of the podium in its history, gets $768,000. Singapore pays gold medalists $745,000, per CNBC. In Paris, two fencing athletes from Hong Kong won gold — Cheung Ka Long in men’s individual foil and Vivian Kong Man Wai in women’s individual épée.
Here are the top medalist payouts, per Wethrift:
1. Cheung Ka Long, Hong Kong, fencing, one gold — $768,000
2. Vivian Kong Man Wai, Hong Kong, fencing, one gold — $768,000
3. Leon Marchand, France, swimming, four gold, one bronze — $365,830
4. Carlos Edriel Yulo, Philippines, gymnastics, two gold — $348,000
5. Tamara Csipes, Hungary, canoeing, two silver, one bronze — $308,000
6. Rizki Juniansyah, Indonesia, weightlifting, one gold — $300,000
7. Veddriq Leonardo, Indonesia, climbing, one gold — $300,000
8. Alice D’Amato, Italy, gymnastics, one gold, one silver — $290,115
9. Tom Reuveny, Israel, windsurfing, one gold — $271,000
10. Kristof Milak, Hungary, swimming, one gold, one silver — $265,000
Wethrift conducted the analysis using data from individual Olympic medalists per country from the official Paris Olympics website. It obtained payout data from USA Today Sports Research and CNBC. Data for several countries was not fully available, so they were not included in the rankings.
Source Agencies
