The countries that pay their athletes for winning Olympic medals
Winning an Olympic medal is a lifelong achievement, but for athletes from these nations, it comes with the bonus of also being a huge payday. We take a look at the countries that pay their medal-winning athletes the most
By Cayle Reid
BEING AN OLYMPIAN requires an immense amount of dedication, perseverance and of course, athletic prowess, but it’s also a huge time commitment. Many Olympians will train at the same rate us regular folk work a job – except they aren’t always paid for it.
Despite the full-time commitment required to become a world class athlete, many countries don’t pay their athletes for Olympic success. Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden don’t offer their athletes anything in return for medals, while Australia kindly hands over $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 – not enough to live on in this economy, but it’s better than nothing, we suppose. Meanwhile, there are some countries that pay their champions over $1 million for winning gold.
The high amount of medals countries like Australia win could account for the low (in comparison) rewards – we can’t be devoting too much of our GDP to cash prizes after all – but the lack of financial support can make being an Olympian tough, to the point of unsustainable. Many athletes are forced to balance their training with part or full-time work, unless they’re one of the bigger names who can rely on sponsorship deals and brand endorsements to pay the bills.
But not every country lets its Olympians live below the poverty line. Some dole out eye watering sums for medal success, with rewards that cross into seven-figure territory. Curiously, Kazakhstan even rewards its medal winners with either a three, two or one bedroom apartment depending on what medal they win. So, what’s the best nation to win a medal for if becoming rich is your only goal? Read on to find out.
All figures have been converted to AUD and are accurate as of July 30th 2024.
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10. Italy
Reward for a gold medal: $325,830
Italy is far and away the most successful nation at the Olympics on this list. As you’ll soon realise, there’s a strong correlation between how many Olympic medals a nation wins and how much they’re willing to pay their athletes for them. Nations with few medals aren’t afraid of parting with some serious coin in exchange for results, while the big hitters like the USA and China would bankrupt themselves if they gave away millions to athletes. Italy always hovers around ten gold medals per Olympics and had its most successful campaign at Tokyo 2020, winning 40 total medals, meaning they had to make a heavy outlay to pay their athletes.
9. Morocco
Reward for a gold medal: $343,800
Known for its long-distance runners, Morocco is one of the more successful African nations at the Olympics and pays more for medals than any of its continental neighbours. A cool third of a mil’ will be slid your way if you’re a Moroccan gold medal winner, but the nation has only had one since Athens 2004. Perhaps that explains the heavier investment.
8. Azerbaijan
Reward for a gold medal: $359,000
If we had you guess which European nation pays the most for an Olympic medal, how many guesses would it have taken you before you landed on Azerbaijan? Spending most of its Olympic history competing as part of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has since emerged as a relatively successful medal-winning nation. With the exception of a single shooting victory, all of Azerbaijan’s seven gold medals have come in combat sports like wrestling, judo and taekwondo – although, shooting really is a combat sport if you think about it, but the IOC doesn’t see it that way.
7. Malaysia
Reward for a gold medal: $360,000
From this point on, all of the nations that pay the most for medals are located in Asia, with most of them in South-East Asia. Malaysia has never won an Olympic gold medal, but if a Malaysian athlete ever does, they’ll be well compensated for it.
6. Kazakhstan
Reward for a gold medal: $382,000 (or a three-bedroom apartment)
Kazakhstan is a curious case, offering its medal winning athletes a choice of a lump sum payment or real estate. Gold medal winners can choose between a three-bedroom apartment or $382,000, while silver and bronze medallists get two and one bedroom apartments or a diminishing cash payment. We’re not sure what house prices are like in Kazakhstan, but if Australia offered us the same choice, we’d probably take the apartment.
5. Indonesia
Reward for a gold medal: $528,650
Indonesia is one of the more successful Olympic nations towards the higher end of this list, with 37 medals in its history. All but one of them came in either badminton or weightlifting however, where Indonesians are something of a formidable force. With half a million dollars awarded to all gold medal winners, Indonesia may need to curb that sum if it gets any better at its most popular sports.
4. Thailand
Reward for a gold medal: $557,680
As you might expect given their reputation for mastery of several martial arts, Thailand does very well in boxing, taekwondo and weightlifting, but not much else. In fact, all 35 of Thailand’s medals have been won in those three sports. The takeaway from this is that there are not only a handful of very rich Olympians in Thailand, but that all of them could likely beat you up, or at least lift you above their head. So maybe don’t mess with them.
3. Taiwan
Reward for a gold medal: $1.09 million
Win a gold medal for Taiwan and you’re an instant millionaire. Sounds pretty nice doesn’t it? Taiwan have competed as Chinese Taipei at the Olympics since 1984, winning a handful of medals predominantly in weightlifting, taekwondo and badminton. Weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching is Taiwan’s most successful Olympian, winning gold in the women’s 53kg category at back-to-back Olympics at London 2012 and Rio 2016. We have to assume she’s living fairly comfortably right now.
2. Singapore
Reward for a gold medal: 1.13 million
It’s a handsome fee, but only one Singaporean has actually won a gold medal. Joseph Schooling, who defeated Michael Phelps at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 100-metre butterfly, is the lucky Singaporean. Phelps finished his career with 27 Olympic medals, while Schooling only ever managed one. As a one-time medallist, Schooling was fortunate to be born in Singapore.
1. Hong Kong
Reward for a gold medal: $1.17 million
We should preface this by stating that Hong Kong has only won four gold medals in Olympic history, so the tiny nation hasn’t had to hand out this sum all that often, but for those four lucky winners, that is a life-changing amount of money. Hong Kong also just so happens to be in the middle of its best ever Olympic campaign, with two gold medals already won by a pair of fencers. That’s close to $2.5 million in prize money already awarded. Surely their economy is taking a hit?
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