Tokyo Olympics: Here’s how much money athletes make for gold, silver and bronze medals

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics has come to an end after it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Team USA finished atop of the medal table with 113 medals, followed by China with 88 medals and Japan with 58 medals.  

The Olympics is built around the spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play. It is also to promote tolerance and understanding in an increasingly troubled world in order to make world peace.

However, over the years, the games have become keenly competitive with countries enticing their athletes with bonuses to win medals. The International Olympic Committee doesn’t award prize money to athletes for earning a medal in its events, but countries offer their athletes money for winning gold, silver, or bronze. The monetary reward varies from one country to another.

Per data published by CNBC, Singaporean athletes receive the highest cash reward for a gold medal, twice the cash reward countries like the U.S.A and Canada receive. 

According to the data, the Singaporean Olympic Committee award $737,000 to its individual athletes for winning gold, $369,000 for silver, and $184,000 for bronze. Of the amount they received as a reward, they are required to give 20 percent of what they earned to their respective national sports associations for future training and development.

Kazakhstan comes in second with the highest reward for athletes who win a medal. The country’s Olympic association pay $250,000 for gold, $150,000 for silver, and 75,000 for bronze. 

Italy offers the highest reward in the European Union, with gold medalists getting $213,000, silver medalists $107,000, and bronze medalists $71,000. 

Athletes from the United States who topped the medal table award US$37,500, US$22,500, and US$15,000 to athletes who win gold, silver, or bronze, respectively. This means that the U.S paid 39 gold medalists a total of $1,462,500, a total of $922,500 silver medalists (41), and 495,000 to its bronze winners.

In Africa, South Africa offers the highest reward for its athletes. Gold medalists get $37,000, silver medalists get $19,000 and bronze medalists receive $7,000. South Africa won one gold medal and two silver medals at the end of this year’s Olympic games.

Nigeria on the other hand rewards $15,000 for gold medalists, while silver and bronze medal winners each get $10,000 and $7,500, respectively. The Nigerian team won one gold medal and one bronze medal after the games.

Kenya dominated the medal table from Africa with a total of 25 medals. Of the 10, four were gold, four silver, and two bronze. For each gold medal, Kenya pays $10,000, $7,500 for silver, and $5,000 for bronze.

Ghana pays $5,000 for gold medalists, $3,000 for silver medalists, and $1,000 for bronze medalists. The country won only a bronze medal, which means that they will pay only $1,000.