Every time the Olympic Games roll around, athletes showcase their talents and hard work. It doesn’t matter what Olympic sport you’re watching, you can be certain that the competitors are beyond excellent and have dedicated themselves to the activity in every way.

What’s not as clear is how they get compensated for all of the time and energy they put into getting to the Olympics to begin with. Do Olympic athletes get paid? If they do, how much do Olympians make? Or, if they don’t, how do Olympians make money? All straightforward questions with not entirely straightforward answers.

How Olympians pay for their training, transportation, and other sport-related costs is one aspect their money needs. Another is day-to-day life – food, lodging, and the other expenses we all encounter (whether we want to or not). As a result, surviving as an Olympic athlete isn’t easy and there’s no single way to do it.

Some Countries Award Cash For Medals; Others Offer Prizes

Individual countries may offer financial compensation for medals, too. The United States awards gold medal winners $37,000, while silver and bronze medals receive roughly $22,000 and $15,000, respectively. Australia pays $20,000, $15,000, and $10,000 for gold, silver, and bronze, while countries like Morocco and Serbia award gold medal winners over $200,000 each.

Hong Kong is the highest when it comes to money, paying $768,000 and $380,000 for gold and silver, respectively.

Some countries don’t offer money – or just money – and have prizes at the ready. Poland awards medal winners a diamond, a vacation, and artwork. Gold medals get Polish athletes an apartment, too.

Accommodations are also part of the reward for medals in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. Indonesian medal winners like badminton players Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, who took home gold in 2024, received five cows and a restaurant each. China awards winners like sport shooter Yi Siling a $30,000 car and a wine made in her honor.

Iraqi weightlifter Ali Ammar Yasser received land and a monthly stipend simply for qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games. Members of the Olympics-bound Iraqi soccer team received the same.

Olympians Don’t Get Salaries, But May Receive Compensation For Medals

Olympic athletes do not receive salaries but have increasingly been rewarded for taking home an Olympic medal. In 2024, World Alliance distributed $2.4 million to gold medal winners in all 48 track and field events. According to Sebastian Coe, World Alliance’s president:

The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medallists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognizing the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games.

Coe acknowledged that it “is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games,” but also highlighted the importance of giving money back to the athletes themselves.

Bodies like the International Boxing Association (IBA) announced in 2024 that it would pay boxers based on how they did at the Paris Games:

All Paris gold medallists in the boxing tournament will receive a substantial financial reward of $100,000. Out of this amount, the athlete will receive $50,000, their National Federation will receive $25,000, and their coach will receive $25,000.

For a silver medal, $50,000 prize money will be awarded, with the athlete receiving $25,000, and the remaining $25,000 being distributed evenly between the coach and the National Federation.

For a bronze medal, we will provide $25,000, of which $12,500 will go to the athlete, and $12,500 will again be distributed evenly.

Additionally, athletes who lost in the quarterfinals and finished 5th, will each receive $10,000 from IBA, making the total prize money fund commitment equalling more than $3.1 million USD distributed to over 100 boxers.

USA Wrestling rewards medal winners from its Living the Dream Medal Fund, and USA Swimming also reportedly offers financial payouts as part of its Operation Gold program.

Countries And National Bodies May Provide Compensation To Non-Medal Winners

Payment from the Iraqi government to the country’s Olympic-qualifying soccer team and weightlifter Ali Ammar Yasser before ever competing at the 2024 Games is rare, but not unheard of.

Compensation may come from taking part in the Olympic Trials, as was the case for the top 10 finishers in the men’s and women’s marathons in 2024. A total of $600,000 was distributed among the 20 individuals. Additionally, USA Track & Field awards the top eight finishers in each event at the Olympic Trials.

The IOC Does Not Directly Fund Athletes, But Indirectly Supports Some International And National Bodies That Do

Until the later part of the 20th century, all Olympic athletes were amateurs – a word that indicates an individual is doing what they love above all. The Games, as a result, were based in what scholar Richard Gruneau called the aesthetics of:

Classically-sculpted male bodies; mythical flames and torches; flags, ritual ceremonies and mass displays; paintings, sculptures, hymns and poetry; and public incantations of honour and duty – briefly gave amateur sport a cultural status that no form of sport in western life ever had in the past.

The IOC allowed professional athletes to compete in the Olympic Games once it realized those were athletes people wanted to see in person and on television. When pros entered the fray, especially with teams like the Dream Team in 1992, they brought with them audiences and, in return, money.

The IOC could sell rights to the Olympics to media companies worldwide. The money the IOC gets is often used to support National Olympic Committees and international federations like World Athletics. These groups, in turn, may help support athletes financially.

Training And Travel Requires Stipends, Sponsors, And Fundraisers

Training and travel are among the top expenses for Olympians. Because both prohibit or at least hinder an athlete’s ability to work, other sources of revenue are needed. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has programs to aid in paying medical and sport-related healthcare costs. Tuition programs and grants like the ones awarded through the William E. Simon Olympic Endowment are also available.

The Simon Grant, as it’s known, is open to individuals who are “internationally competitive Team USA athletes who are in contention for the US Olympic & Paralympic Team.” The funds can be used to support annual training and competitions.

In addition to the USOPC, athletes like Olympic polo player Maggie Steffens rely on financial support from USA Polo to survive. Steffens also posted on Instagram in May 2024 to ask for help. Her post read, in part:

Most Olympians need a 2nd (or 3rd) job to support chasing the dream (myself included!) and most teams rely on sponsors for travel, accommodations, nutritional support, rent/lodging, and simply affording to live in this day and age.

After seeing the post, rapper Flavor Flav commented:

AYYY YOOO,,, as a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports – imma personally sponsor you my girl,,, whatever you need. And imma sponsor the whole team. My manager is in touch with your agent and imma use all my relationships and resources to help all y’all even more. That’s a FLAVOR FLAV promise.
– FLAV

Flav followed through with his promise. 

Other athletes, like high jumper Vernon Turner and boxer Jennifer Lozano, had the help of a GoFundMe to pay for their families to attend the 2024 Games.

Many Athletes Live At Or Below The Poverty Line

According to the Centers for Disease Control:

Sports participation increased with increasing family income, from 31.2% among children with a family income of less than 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 70.2% among children with a family income of 400% or more of FPL.

Many Olympians do come from families that are better off than others, but the path to the Games is expensive for any athlete. Accumulated costs for training, transportation, and medical care can exceed $20,000 annually, but nearly 27% of athletes earn as little as $15,000 each year. For context, the US Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2024 that the poverty line for single-person households was $15,060.

Brant Feldman, a manager with American Group Management explained that the ads and other deals available haven’t “trickled down” to enough athletes, but there are additional aspects of inequity that involve the governing bodies. After Congress established a commission on the State of the US Olympics & Paralympics, it found that:

[not] enough to address challenges that have plagued the US Olympic and Paralympic movement for years. Perhaps the most important finding from our study is that the need for systemic reform of the governance and oversight of this movement by Congress is both extensive and urgent.

Endorsement Deals And Sponsorships Can Bring In Millions For Some Athletes

Once an Olympic athlete wins a medal, securing sponsorships and endorsement deals becomes infinitely easier. This isn’t to say it’s easy, but it does help with recognition by brands related to one’s sport or ones with a broader scope. Some of the biggest names in Olympic sports, like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles, have millions of dollars in sponsorships and endorsements.

Ledecky, who took home a record-breaking 13th medal at the 2024 Games, signed an endorsement deal with Athleta in March 2024. Biles also has a deal with the brand. Additional endorsements for Ledecky include Adidas, Ralph Lauren, and American Girl, earning her as much as $1 million annually. In addition to Athleta, BIles has ties to Visa, United Airlines, and gymnastics brand GK Elite. In 2023, Biles earned more than $7 million, according to estimates from Forbes magazine.

Olympians Can Have Multiple Side Jobs

In lieu of sponsorships, endorsements, and other outside funding sources, Olympic athletes earn money by working another job – or several – to survive. In the words of Kaleigh Gilcrist, a member of the women’s water polo team:

The reality is [that sponsorships and endorsements exist for] only the top 5%; the rest of us are living paycheck by paycheck.

Gilcrist’s teammate Maggie Steffens echoed this when she posted on Instagram in May 2024 asking for support.

Many of the jobs Olympians have are far removed from anything involving sports. Angel McCoughtry, a member of Team USA’s women’s basketball team, plays with the WNBA and owns an ice cream shop in Atlanta, GA. Ben Flecher, a former Olympian in judo, supported his athletic pursuits as a horticulturist. 

When Raheleh Asemani, a Tae Kwon Do competitor during the 2016 Olympic Games, moved to Belgium from Iran in 2012, she:

started working as a postwoman while I was still training in Tae Kwon Do. I started my job early in the morning and would work until about midday. Then I’d go train in the afternoon. From Friday to Monday, I also had competitions. There was never enough time for recovery and rest.

Other professions for Olympians past and present include firefighting, engineering, teaching, and dentistry.

Overall, “Your lifetime earnings as an Olympic athlete are in the extremely high negative figures. There’s no doubt about that,” said Victor Matheson, author of Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics.

Athletes Have Increasingly Turned To Influencing And Other Online Activities

Online moneymaking has increasingly been an option for Olympians. According to Rolling Stone, Olympians who sideline as influencers on TikTok and YouTube can earn as much as $6,000 each month. When Tara Davis-Woodhall, an Olympic long jumper, and Paralympic athlete Hunter Woodhall (her husband) teamed up to showcase their daily lives on YouTube, their first check alone brought in $3,200.

According to Hunter, “Genuinely, [content creation] has changed everything,” but Tara was more specific about how it affected them:

It honestly has changed our lives… We can buy the best nutrition, we can buy the best doctors, and pay our coaches. I’m able to put everything I can on the line without having to worry about the stress of money

Other athletes like synchronized swimmer Dani Ramirez acquired notoriety by posting ASMR videos that feature her removing the gelatin material used to slick her hair:

The part that captivates people is it can be extremely confusing upon first glance… Then when you learn what it’s really for, you fall down this rabbit hole of a sport that you’ve either never seen before. It’s an amazing blessing that I have the opportunity to introduce my sport to so many people even if it’s through our extreme hairstyle.

Robbie Manson, a rower from New Zealand, capitalized on one more aspect of online activity to earn money for the 2024 Games. Manson set up an OnlyFans account at the adults-only website because, in his words:

The fact that I’m gay, I have the gay following and the audience already, and I’m slightly leaning into that. I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, (but) for other athletes, there’s definitely an opportunity there.

When it comes to finances, it’s paid off for Manson: 

I get more than double what I would be on otherwise as an athlete – read into that what you will, but I am making more from OnlyFans than I am from rowing at this stage.