With 24 players on the roster each receiving $22,500, that one official medal came with a $540,000 bill. While the team’s silver counted for just one medal in the official Tokyo standings, the USOPC rewards athletes equally regardless of whether they compete in an individual or team event. The Americans’ top medalist of the Games was swimmer Caeleb Dressel with five-all golds-but the USOPC’s most costly line item came in baseball. United States Tokyo Medal Count: 39 gold, 41 silver, 33 bronze Total Payout: $7.84 million The country finished in seventh in the medal standings with 40, Italy’s highest total ever at a single Games, led by sprinter Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who picked up golds in the 100 meters and the 4x100-meter relay. David Ramos/Getty Images Italy Tokyo Medal Count: 10 gold, 10 silver, 20 bronze Total Payout: $9.07 millionĬonsidering its success on the Olympic stage-no fewer than 27 medals at any Summer Games since 1992-Italy’s bonuses look particularly generous: roughly $212,000 for gold, $106,000 for silver and $71,000 for bronze at Saturday’s exchange rate. Lamont Marcell Jacobs after Italy won the gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay on August 6. Russia, which came in third in terms of total medals, likewise did not respond to a request for comment on how much it is paying. Reports suggest it probably offers less now, but with more golds and more total medals in Tokyo than any nation besides the U.S., it very likely paid out more than most countries. But those countries typically don’t win many medals, if any, and therefore don’t have to pay out too much.Ĭhina hasn’t publicized the figures for its medal bonuses since it paid out $51,000 to gold medalists at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Some smaller nations offer much bigger bonuses, with Singapore willing to shell out roughly $738,000 to gold medalists and Malaysia offering a one-time payment of $237,000 plus a monthly allowance for life. While some nations-Britain, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden among them-don’t pay a dime to their athletes in medal bonuses, many do, including powerful Olympic programs like Australia, Canada and France. (Don’t worry, taxpayers: The committee receives no government funds, instead relying on the sale of media and sponsorship rights and donations to the Team USA Fund.) That comes on top of the financial assistance that the committee supplies in the form of training grants and health insurance.
women’s soccer team will each collect $15,000 for their third-place finish. For instance, the eight swimmers who competed in the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay across qualifying and the final will get $37,500 apiece for their victory while the 22 members of the U.S. For each of those medals, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee has pledged to pay out sizable bonuses: $37,500 for a gold, $22,500 for a silver and $15,000 for a bronze.Īltogether, the USOPC will end up disbursing $7.84 million, thanks to the sheer number of trips to the podium by American athletes, who receive the same bonus whether they won as an individual or as a member of a team.
It was an impressive haul-the U.S.’s fourth-highest total in its 125-year Summer Olympic history, filled with superlative performances, from Caeleb Dressel’s five golds in the pool to Simone Biles’ moving return on the balance beam to Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad’s epic duel in the 400-meter hurdles.