What better way to celebrate an Olympic medal received at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games? A diamond? Lifetime metro tickets? A car? A plot of land? In addition to eternal glory for the champions, countries – and sometimes sponsors – reserve the right to offer them a gift… more or less unusual.
Many do the basics and pay a bonus to medalists. Like France, which pays 80,000 euros for an athlete who wins gold, 40,000 euros for silver and 20,000 euros for bronze. The International Athletics Federation has also announced that it will also pay a bonus of 50,000 dollars to the 48 athletes who won medals at the end of this Olympiad. But other countries promise rewards and benefits in kind to their athletes. Sometimes very unusual.
Political rewards
South Korea, still at war with its northern neighbor, has decided that all its Olympic medalists would be exempt from military service, which is compulsory for all men and lasts at least 18 months. The six South Korean archers, who won four of the five gold medals up for grabs in the discipline in Tokyo in 2021, also received cars from their sponsor, the manufacturer Hyundai. In Mexico, too, the gesture towards Olympic medal-winning athletes is proving to be eminently political and symbolic. The Mexican medalists will thus receive a sum of money financed, in an original way, thanks to funds confiscated by the United States Department of Justice from a Mexican politician accused of money laundering, announced President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.
These cases are far from isolated. Three years ago, after her victory at the Tokyo Olympics, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who gave her country, the Philippines, its first gold medal in history, received a military promotion, obtaining the rank of master sergeant in the army.
Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka Long and Vivian Kong Man Wai, who won gold in fencing this week, have been awarded lifetime subway passes by the local government, along with other award-winning athletes. The gym chain Pure is also offering indefinite memberships to the city’s 35 Olympians so they can “represent Hong Kong at their best” in the future.
To the more ostentatious rewards
On the Polish side, a real jackpot awaits the hypothetical gold medalists of the delegation. The national Olympic committee has promised a bonus of around 58,000 euros, a diamond, a two-room apartment, a painting and a holiday voucher. “I wanted our athletes […] “are treated in a special, unique way,” Radosław Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee, said recently.
Colombian gold medallists should receive a bonus equivalent to 240 minimum salaries, or 72,000 euros. The airline Avianca has also announced that they will receive 100,000 miles for a gold medal, 50,000 for a silver medal and 30,000 for a bronze medal. A rather common reward. Olympic javelin champion in Tokyo, the Indian Neeraj Chopra was promised free and unlimited flights for a year by the airline IndiGo.
Iraqi athletes who qualified for the 2024 Olympics received a plot of land and a payment of around €6,600, according to the National Olympic Committee. They will also receive a monthly stipend of 400,000 dinars (€275) from the government. Weightlifter Ali Ammar Yasser received a car and a plot of land after qualifying. The Committee also promised him a million dollars (€916) if he won bronze. These unusual rewards from states, Olympic committees or private companies are nothing new, however: they are repeated at every Olympics.