We never even thought about this.
Winning a gold medal at the Olympics is the pinnacle of sporting achievements, with Usain Bolt winning nine of them in his past three Olympic games, and Britain’s Mo Farah completing the double-double, claiming another historic gold in the 5,000m in the early hours of Sunday.
While it’s the ultimate symbol of athletic achievement, there is also the small matter of getting paid for your award.
Wait, what?! https://t.co/ytn2wZSXy9
— Her.ie (@Herdotie) August 21, 2016
What’s surprising is that the amount of money athletes get from different countries for winning in their competition differs a lot.
While we still don’t know how much an Irish athlete earns, it’s been revealed that British athletes earn absolutely nothing in the way of prize money should they get a gold medal.
According to Statista, countries including Sweden, Norway and Croatia also do not reward their gold medallists with money.
In terms of gold medal payouts, it pays to be Singaporean athlete (literally).
Singapore – €669,739.05 (£578,000)
Indonesia – €340,663.12 (£294,000)
Azerbaijan – €227,108.74 (£196,000)
Kazakhstan – €203934.38 (£176,000)
Italy – €164,537.97 (£142,000)
France – €59,094.62 (£51,000)
Russia – €54,459.75 (£47,000)
South Africa – €32,444.11 (£28,000)
USA – €22,015.64 (£19,000)
Germany – €17,380.77 (£15,000)
Australia – €13,904.62 (£12,000)
Great Britain – £0
Not a great time to be British is it?
