Olympic athletes winning medals at the Paris Games get many perks instead of prize money from the Olympic committee.
This follows a tradition set in the ancient Olympic Games held in Greece where winners were given – apart from an olive wreath – amphorae filled with olive oil, bronze tripods (big vases with three feet), bronze shields or silver cups. Olive oil was extremely precious and worth a lot of money.
In the Paris 2024 Olympic Games winning athletes are being given as a perk a long gold box alongside their prestigious medals. It contains the Games’ ‘Iconic Poster’, created by Ugo Gattoni. The Parisian artist dedicated more than 2,000 hours over six months to design the poster.
At Tokyo 2020, athletes received a small bouquet of yellow, green and blue flowers. Rio 2016 saw athletes handed a small model of the Games’ logo, while medal winners at London 2012 were also handed flowers.
What perks do athletes in the Olympics get
However, individual governments and private sponsors often compensate athletes with cash, property and even more unusual prizes, like livestock.
This year, for example, Olympic track and field gold medalists will win $50,000 from World Athletics, making it the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympic Games, the organization announced in April.
The BBC reports that Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo who won his second Olympic gold medal in two days, was given a three-bedroom condo, thousands of dollars and a lifetime of free ramen.
The Philippine government will hand the gymnast 10 million Philippine pesos ($173,300) – a reward promised to any gold medalists – while a real estate firm has promised him a fully furnished three-bedroom unit at McKinley Hill, the largest condominium development in metropolitan Manila.
The House of Representatives has pledged to give Yulo an additional 6 million pesos in cash incentives, with speaker of the lower house, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, describing him as a “sports hero” and “national treasure”.
Even medical clinics and universities have rolled out the red carpet for the national hero – a gastroenterologist has offered Yulo free consultations and colonoscopies for life while the University of Mindanao has pledged free university credits.
Also awaiting him are lifetime supplies of ramen, mac and cheese and grilled chicken offered by various restaurant chains.
Olympic fencer Vivian Kong has made history by winning Hong Kong‘s first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This triumph not only places her among the great athletes of her country but also grants her a generous cash bonus from the Hong Kong government.
Kong will receive $768,000, a reward that highlights her country’s commitment to supporting and recognizing its elite athletes. She will also be given “lifetime” subway tickets by the local government.
Any Olympic medal guarantees South Korean athletes an exemption from military service, which is mandatory for all able-bodied enlisted men for at least 18 months.
South Korean archers who won four of the five available gold medals in Tokyo in 2021 received cars from their sponsor, the manufacturing company Hyundai.
Cows offered as perks to Olympic athletes in Indonesia
Indonesian badminton athletes Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, who earned gold medals at the Tokyo Games in 2021, were promised five cows, a meatball restaurant and a new house, according to a Reuters report. The government also offered the pair a cash prize worth roughly $350,000.
Additionally, Rahayu, from Sulawesi island, was offered five cows and a house by the district’s head, according to the report.
Food orders await the athlete who will win Malaysia‘s first-ever gold medal at the Paris Olympics, delivery and transport company ‘Grab’ has promised.
The Colombian travel company “Avianca” will grant loyalty points (s.s. miles) to the athletes who have distinguished themselves, in agreement with the local Olympic Committee, namely 100,000 for the gold, 50,000 for the silver and 30,000 for the bronze medal.
If an athlete from the Republic of Kazakhstan places in their event, the Republic’s Ministry of Culture and Sports gives them an apartment. Its size depends on how well the prize winner does in their event.
Gold medalists get three-room apartments; silver medalists get two-room apartments; and bronze medalists get one-room apartments.
A diamond, an amount of 250,000 zlotys (approx. EUR 58,000), a two-room apartment, a painting and a holiday voucher, is the “gift package” that awaits every Polish individual sport Olympian. “I wanted our athletes to be treated in a special, unique way,” Radoslaw Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee, said recently.
Iraqi athletes who qualified for the 2024 Olympics received a plot of land as well as about 6,600 euros, according to the Iraqi Olympic Committee. They will also benefit from a monthly salary of 400,000 dinars (US$275) from the government.
When Neeraj Chopra of India won javelin gold in Tokyo he was promised unlimited free air travel for a year by airline IndiGo and a new seven-seater SUV by a businessman.
