Like most of the 11,000 athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics, Cheung Ka-long faced great difficulties. The fencer arrived at the Games in 19th place in foil, and his path didn’t get any easier from there: He had to face 2018 world champion Alessio Foconi in the round of 16 before facing defending Olympic champion Daniele Garozzo. in the round of 16.
But Cheung, who had carried the Hong Kong flag during the opening ceremony, made his home turf proud, fighting an initial deficit against Garozzo to become Hong Kong’s first Olympic champion in 25 years. He will soon collect another kind of gold: the territory’s government rewards its Olympians HK $ 5 million (about $ 643,000 at today’s exchange rate) for gold medals in individual events.
For most athletes, in addition to some highly paid Olympians like Kevin Durant and Naomi Osaka, competing at this elite level is a financial struggle. There are equipment costs, training costs, medical costs, and more, causing athletes to seek cash from sponsors and grants. But the select few who can climb the podium – 339 sets of medals are expected to be awarded at the Tokyo Games, across 33 sports – may find that their countries are willing to make it all worthwhile.
The United States, for example, is awarding $ 37,500 for every gold medal an athlete wins in Tokyo, $ 22,500 for silver, and $ 15,000 for bronze, in addition to grants and benefits such as health insurance that it offers more widely. Those numbers have risen from the $ 25,000, $ 15,000 and $ 10,000 paid at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The host country of these Games, Japan, pays similarly, with medal bonuses of roughly 45,000 for gold, 18,000 for gold. silver and 9,000 for bronze, except in baseball, and members of the Japanese team are reportedly in line for an additional 45,000 if they can win the tournament.
In Mexico, for example, the National Sports Commission (Conade) is expected to deliver accumulative life scholarships to medalists for 13,000 pesos for those who win gold, 11,000 pesos for silver and 10,000 pesos for bronze.
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In addition to the scholarship, Mexican athletes receive a bonus for their medal, although Andrés Manuel López Obrador said they will be rewarded with “something special”, he did not specify amounts.
In the 2016 Rio games, Mexican athletes who achieved medals received 3 million pesos for gold ($ 150,793), although no one won that medal in Brazil; silver 2 million pesos (100,500 dollars) and 1 million pesos for bronze (50,270 dollars).
Not all countries offer an award for a podium performance. Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, for example, do not offer any additional payment for medals, nor do smaller delegations such as Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga or the United States Virgin Islands. But many countries do, and although the United States and Japan have many companies in their general price range, individual gold medal payouts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Portugal, Serbia, and Switzerland, to name a few, are They range from around $ 15,000 to $ 70,000, all of which you could say fall into the modest range.
There is much more money available, particularly from countries that are still trying to win the Olympics and do not expect to dish out medal bonuses to their rosters.
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Here are ten countries that offer six-figure rewards for Olympic gold medalists.
Singapore
Individual Gold Medal Award: Singapore $ 1 million ($ 738,000)
Singapore offers the highest known payout for an individual gold medalist at Singapore $ 1 million, plus rewards of $ 500,000 for silver medalists and $ 250,000 for bronze medalists. (In team events, the medalists are awarded large amounts of money.) As of Friday night, Singapore was not among the 70 countries to have won a medal at these Games, but it could compete in the women’s team table tennis event next week.
Taiwan
Individual Gold Medal Award: New Taiwan $ 20 million ($ 716,000)
Taiwan or Taipei, as it is known at the Olympics, is already committed to a big payout this year: Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun set Olympic records in the women’s under-59-kilogram division to claim gold. The rewards actually seep below the podium spots, and Olympians who finish seventh or eighth in their events still claim New Taiwan $ 900,000 ($ 32,000), almost as much as an American gold medal winner.
Indonesia
Individual Gold Medal Award: Indonesian Rs 5,000 million ($ 346,000)
Indonesia paid 5 billion rupees to its 2016 gold medalists, the mixed doubles badminton team of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, and an official said ahead of this year’s Games that the prize for Tokyo would be at least this much. big. Olympic champions also receive an allowance of about $ 1,400 a month, for life. Eko Yuli Irawan is the best performer from the Tokyo delegation so far, having captured a silver in the men’s 61 kilogram weightlifting division.
Bangladesh
Individual Gold Medal Award: $ 300,000
Bangladesh, which has never won an Olympic medal, has pledged to pay about $ 300,000 for gold, about $ 150,000 for silver and about $ 100,000 for bronze, according to an official with the national Olympic committee. Only one of the six athletes in the Tokyo delegation still has a chance to win that award this year: 400m runner Mohammad Jahir Rayhan, who will be lucky enough to come out of the preliminaries.
Kazakhstan
Individual Gold Medal Award: $ 250,000
A Kazakh government official announced this month that gold medal winners would receive $ 250,000, silver medalists $ 150,000 and bronze medalists $ 75,000. It didn’t take long for an athlete to seek to achieve such an award: Two Kazakh competitors won bronze last Saturday, in weightlifting and judo, and another weightlifter followed up with a bronze on Monday. The Central Asian country’s neighbors are also reportedly offering large cash prizes to medalists.
Malaysia
Individual Gold Medal Award: Malaysian Ringgits 1 million ($ 237,000)
Like Indonesia, the Malaysian government awards medalists a one-time payment and monthly allowance: an advance check of approximately $ 237,000 for gold, 71,000 for silver, or 24,000 for bronze plus approximately $ 1,200, 700, or $ 470 per month. Following an August 2016 decree, Malaysian Paralympic athletes receive the same amounts.
Italy
Individual Gold Medal Award: 180,000 euros ($ 214,000)
Italy now pays 180,000 euros to its gold medalists, a 20% increase from 2016, plus 90,000 for silver and 60,000 for bronze. That’s a lot of green: Italians won 28 medals at the 2016 Games, the ninth most among all countries, and they have 20 medals in Tokyo, good for seventh on the table as of Friday night.
Philippines
Individual Gold Medal Award: 10 million Philippine pesos ($ 200,000)
Weightlifter Hidilyn Díaz took home the Philippines’ first Olympic gold on Monday, ending a 97-year drought and securing the official prize of approximately $ 200,000 offered by the Philippine Sports Commission. But his earnings didn’t stop there. The commission pledged to give Díaz an additional 5 million pesos, and with contributions from President Rodrigo Duterte, the city of Zamboanga, and other individuals and companies, she must transport 48.5 million Philippine pesos ($ 970,000), as well as a house. . a condo unit, a van, and unlimited flights on two airlines.
Nor is she the only one to take home an extracurricular prize. The Manipur state government has pledged to give Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu 10 million Indian rupees ($ 134,000) for her silver medal performance.
Hungary
Prize for an individual gold medal: 50 million Hungarian forints ($ 166,000)
Hungary pays out around $ 166,000 (plus tax) for gold medalists, 118,000 for silver medalists and 94,000 for bronze medalists, in addition to smaller payments for athletes finishing fourth through eighth place. Each member of a medal-winning team is eligible for the same amount as an individual athlete – great news for the Hungarian men’s water polo team, a perennial gold medal threat.
Kosovo
Individual Gold Medal Award: 100,000 euros ($ 119,000)
Little Kosovo’s government is paying 100,000 euros to gold medalists, 60,000 to silver medalists, and 40,000 to bronze medalists, with two Olympic champions (judoka Nora Gjakova and Distria Krasniqi) in Tokyo already. Olympic coaches can earn half (50,000, 30,000 or 20,000 euros) for the performances of their athletes. In addition, Kosovo’s Olympic committee plans to offer its own reward to gold medalists, and the amount is still being decided, a committee official told Forbes.
Estonia
Individual Gold Medal Award: 4,600 euros ($ 5,500) per year for life
Estonia does not officially issue a six-figure paycheck, but deserves recognition as honorary number 11 on this list for giving its Olympic gold medalists a lifetime allowance of 4,600 euros per year ($ 5,500), with additional support as they are approaching retirement age. Those salaries will add up for champions like fencers who triumphed in the women’s team epee event. A 29-year-old Olympian who reaches a life expectancy of 78 years would earn more than $ 300,000.
BY: Brett Knight