Olympic Medal Worth Around the World

What some would consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is that winning a gold medal may not come with as many winnings as you would expect. So, let’s look at ten different countries from around the world and how they pay their Olympians for the medals they earn.

From the highest amount awarded to the lowest, the ten countries are Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, Philippines, Brazil, US, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Great Britain. For gold, silver, and bronze, Singapore will pay its athletes $740,000, $370,000, and $185,000. Great Britain does not pay its athletes anything for winning medals, they do have an amount set aside which goes to the athletes, but it does not depend on awards.

Even though Singapore pays out the most, they tied with Great Britain with how much they have paid their athletes for winning medals, $0; no Singaporean has won a medal in the Tokyo games yet. The country that has paid out the most so far is Italy. Earning $213,000 for gold, $106,000 for silver, and $71,000 for bronze, the Italian athletes have earned almost $3.3 million. The only other country to cross the million-dollar mark is the US, paying nearly $2 million.

A full breakdown of each country mentioned in this article will be provided below.