What athletes get paid for Olympic medals in South Africa vs other countries

Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing event for any competitive athlete that one cannot really put a price on – except when possibly bagging R1.3 million.

Although the experience of competing in the Olympics is priceless, clinching a medal for your country could see you rewarded quite handsomely.

According to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), South Africa has sent a total of 138 athletes (excluding reserves) across 19 codes to compete for podium finishes at the Paris 2024 games.

Although Team South Africa for Paris is a little slimmer than Tokyo 2020, their incentives for medal placement did not take any cut – with the highest payout from Sascoc being R400,000.

Sascoc divides their monetary incentives into individuals, relay and team sports, and boats (2 athletes).

Individuals

Relays and team sports (per player/coach)

Boats (2 athletes)

As shown, the payouts vary depending on the discipline the athletes compete in.

Athletics events get an even sweeter deal

Those taking part in any of the athletics events have the possibility of getting an even sweeter deal if they manage to take home gold.

For the 2024 Paris Olympics, World Athletics announced that it will become the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympic Games, financially rewarding athletes for, as they describe, “achieving the pinnacle of sporting success.”

A total prize pot of $2.4 million (R43.88 million) has been ring-fenced to reward athletes who win a gold medal in each of the 48 athletics events in Paris at $50,000 (R914,553) per gold medal.

This means that if a South African wins gold at one of the individual athletics events, they could take home a whopping R1.3 million rand.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a recent interview with CNBC that these athletes deserve a share of the income they generate for the organisation. 

“Athletes are, in essence, the bearers of the revenues that we get,” said Coe.

Highest paying countries

While South Africa sports some impressive incentives, they pale in comparison to some of the highest-paying countries represented at the games – which offer both cash injections and perks such as free housing.

The country that rewards its Olympic medalists most generously is that of Hong Kong.

According to the Hong Kong Sports Institute, individual athletes can expect HK$ 6 million (R14.07 million) for gold, HK$ 3 million (R7.04 million) for silver, and HK$ 1.5 million (R3.5 million) for bronze.

Even those who did not get a podium finish get a healthy cash tip, at R1.7 million for fourth place and R879,738 for 5th to 8th place.

Hong Kong also offers R28.14 million per team that gets gold, R14.07 million per silver and R7.04 million per bronze.

The second highest-paid incentives is that of Israel. The country doubled its incentives from the last Olympic Games, now offering R4.95 million per gold, R3.72 million per silver and R2.48 million per bronze.

Next is that of Serbia, who are set to reward gold medalists with a cash tip of $218,000 (R4 million), $85,960 (R1.58 million) for silver and $64,470 (R1.18 million) for bronze.

But, Serbs’ Olympic medalists benefits do not stop there, as they become eligible for a national pension, which kicks in at age 40 and is paid out monthly. 

The fourth highest incentives (for gold medals in particular) is Malaysia. Gold medalists can expect a R3.96 million, with bronze medalists receiving 10% of that or R396,000.

In hopes of boosting the incentive, Malaysia recently announced that it would be offering double (R7.92 million) to the athlete who wins Malaysia’s first gold medal at Paris 2024.

The country with the fifth highest-incentives for Olympic medalists and the largest in Africa is that of Morocco, offering $200,525 (R3.68 million) per gold, $125,328 (R2.3 million) per silver and $75,197 (R1.38 million) for bronze.

Next is that of Italy, where gold medalists can expect to see roughly $196,000 (R3.6 million) for gold, $98,000 (R1.8 million) for silver and $65,000 (R1.2 million) for bronze.

Read: How much money petrol attendants earn in South Africa in 2024