Securing a bid to the Olympics is, by design, no easy feat.
Around 14,000 athletes earned that honor this past year, with over 11,000 at the Summer Games and just under 3,000 slated to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The American delegation alone will include 223 members.
It’s an exclusive club, but for many of those who have spent countless hours training and preparing, the culmination of a successful Olympic bid makes the effort all the more rewarding.
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But a bid doesn’t always translate into a rewarding payday.
Olympic athletes often struggle to piece together incomes even in the best of times, relying on prize money, stipends, sponsorship and crowdfunding to support their dreams. A full-time job is nearly impossible, given the physical demands of training and frequent travel to training camps, and the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics added an additional year of continued training costs for summer athletes.
More than half of U.S. Olympic hopefuls, or 59%, reported making less than $25,000 during the year of their respective Olympics, according to a COVID-19 impact survey distributed to 4,400 athletes by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). A total of 643 Olympic athletes and 94 Paralympic athletes responded.
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For many athletes — about one-third of those polled by the USPOC — making a living primarily through sponsorships and prize money from competitions, both of which were thrown into limbo throughout a pandemic-altered year that delayed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and canceled many other competitions.
Another quarter of survey athletes indicated that they rely almost entirely on employment unrelated to their sport.
While there are a number of factors that determine the financial security of Olympic athletes, one thing’s for sure -- they don’t get paid for being at the Olympics, at least not directly.
So how do Olympians earn money and how much? Here’s a breakdown:
Have Olympians always been able to earn money?
For most of the 20th century, the Olympics were filled with amateurs ... literally.
Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic Games, believed amateurism essential to the Olympic movement and for nearly a century that was the status quo.
Athletes caught receiving money in the early days of the Olympics were blacklisted. Notably, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals in the classic pentathlon and decathlon after it was discovered that he had received small payments as a professional baseball player two years prior to the Olympics. Supporters of Thorpe successfully argued that the IOC didn’t follow its own rules of disqualification -- raising concerns about his eligibility with 30 days of the Olympics.
Thorpe’s children were eventually awarded two commemorative medals, nearly 30 years after his death in 1953. His original medals were placed in a museum and eventually stolen.
In the 1970s, amid growing television network influence and speculation that some Soviet bloc governments were financing their athletes’ careers raising questions of fairness, the IOC gradually started to shift their policy in favor of professional athletes.
Throughout the 1980s, the IOC continued to loosen restrictions on age minimums and amateurism, often leaving the decision up to the federations and countries.
The 1992 Games in Barcelona ushered in the new era of Olympic competition, headlined by the Dream Team, labeled the “greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet.”
Do any winter sports still not allow professionals to compete at the Olympics?
Professional athletes can compete in any winter sport at the Olympics, that is unless you’re part of the NHL.
The NHL and IOC have had a tumultuous relationship for the past three decades, with Olympics officials and team owners struggling to align their goals and balance schedule demands. Fans of the game who were cautiously optimistic that things would change in Beijing will have to wait four more years.
In response to surging COVID-19 cases this past winter that caused a series of game cancellations and postponements throughout the league, the NHL announced the cancellation of its predetermined Olympic break.
For the past 30 years, NHL participation at the Olympics has been volatile, depending largely on scheduling, financial support by the league and cooperation of the team owners.
NHL players missed the first three Olympics professional athletes were eligible for due to scheduling conflicts before making their Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. They then made five straight appearances representing numerous different countries before tensions resurfaced ahead of the PyeongChang Olympics, with teams and the NHL refusing to cover player insurance and effectively blocking participation at the Games.
Three lockouts and two Collective Bargaining Agreements later, the NHL seemed poised to return to the Olympic stage in Beijing. Many players were disappointed by the Dec. 22 announcement canceling the Olympic break scheduled for mid-February.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the players aren’t going,” Bruins forward Brad Marchand said. “I think guys have worked their entire lives to put themselves in position to compete at that level and that opportunity. It should be guys’ decisions whether they choose to go or not, regardless of what’s happening in the world. If the Olympics are on and they’re playing, the best players in the world should have that option. It’s tough to deal with.”
Professional hockey players from other leagues will be representing their home countries in Beijing.
Does the International Olympic Committee pay athletes?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not dole out any money -- for participation or prize.
However, athletes can earn money through endorsements, stipends and even medal bonuses courtesy of their home country.
What are Olympic medal bonuses?
The International Olympic Committee, the Games’ organizing body, doesn’t pay any athletes who participate in a particular Olympiad, or give out prize money for medals.
It’s akin to how leagues like the NFL and the NBA don’t pay players; instead, individual teams in the league are responsible for providing compensation. Unlike within those leagues, which have minimum salaries that teams must meet, there are no Olympics-wide requirements for paying athletes. Instead, the onus rests on individual nations or private parties.
One primary way countries choose to reward their top athletes who place among the top of the field in their respective competitions is through medal bonuses.
Many countries offer monetary rewards to their athletes for the number or type of medals they win at the Olympics.
How much are the U.S. Olympic medal bonuses?
As part of “Operation Gold,” an initiative the USOPC launched in 2017, U.S. Olympians who reach the podium receive payments of $37,500 for every gold medal won, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.
Since October 2016, legislation has ensured athletes will bring home 100% of their earnings, too. Congress that year nixed a so-called “victory tax” that had previously designated prize money as taxable earned income, though Olympians who report gross income of more than $1 million a year are still subject to the tax.
Which country gives the biggest medal bonus?
Singapore offers what could be the biggest prize for an individual gold medal: 1 million in Singaporean dollars, or roughly $750,000 USD. Silver medal winners get about $369,000 and $184,000 for bronze, CNBC reports.
Medalists from the next highest two countries, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, earn about $250,000 for gold medal. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics host country Japan gave athletes finishing at the podium $45,000 for gold, $18,000 for silver and $9,000 for bronze.
Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. gold medal bonus of $37,500 was ranked ninth in the world.
How much do Olympic athletes make from sponsorships?
Of course, Olympians will end up on Wheaties boxes and in television ads, too, employing their likenesses to market products or services through individual deals.
The exact values of Olympics sponsorships are often not disclosed. But for the upper echelon of athletes, the household names that dominate headlines and Olympics ads, figures stretch into the millions.
In 2013, Reuters reported that now-retired Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt signed a roughly $10 million a year deal with Puma during the years he continued to compete. Forbes in 2016 estimated Bolt made nearly $33 million during a 12-month period.
Katie Ledecky, who won two gold medals in Tokyo, signed a $7 million contract with swimwear brand TYR in 2018 after earning a whopping four gold medals in Rio, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell. Her deal, reported to run through the 2024 Olympic Games, was one of the “most lucrative” partnerships in swimming history, TYR said in a June 2018 release.
A marketable athlete like Simone Biles earns at least $5 million a year, according to a Forbes estimate, through her many sponsorship partners, including major companies like Visa, Athleta, United Airlines, Oreo’s, Uber Eats, MasterClass and Facebook.
U.S. athletes in Beijing will also have more freedom than ever before to benefit from sponsors thanks to a 2019 decision from the USOPC that loosened marketing rules. Competitors may now thank personal sponsors, appear in ads for those sponsors and receive congratulatory messages from them during the games — but without mentioning or displaying the Olympic logo — all aspects that were previously blocked.
Shaun White, one of the biggest names of the Winter Olympics, received his first board sponsorship at age 7. Following his first gold medal in Turin, snowboard-manufacturing company Burton signed him on to a 10-year contract. While the specific details weren’t disclosed, White was estimated to pocket around $10 million a year in sponsorships.
That deal has since expired, leaving White without a board sponsor for the first time in 24 years. The 35-year-old has taken creative licensing into his own hands, starting his own brand -- titled Whitespace -- and even featuring his niece, Charli, prominently on one of his boards.
And for the first time, collegiate athletes will also be able to benefit from any commercial endorsements they may secure at the Olympics thanks to last month's landmark Supreme Court ruling that prompted the NCAA to change its policy on athlete’s ability to earn money from their name, image and likeness.
How else do Olympic athletes make money?
Even if an athlete doesn’t earn a medal or get signed by a corporate sponsor, they could still earn “wages” for competing in the form of stipends.
In the United States, the USOPC distributes some of its funding among 45 national governing bodies (NGBs), 37 of which oversee sports in the Summer Olympics. The Committee handed down $21 million in grants directly to athletes and another $66 million to training organizations in 2019, according to the nonprofit’s most recent impact report.
Pay systems from there vary by NGB, which can also generate income and provide additional athlete compensation independent from the USOPC.
The money is allocated based on performance, or "likelihood that an athlete will win a medal," Team USA spokesman Mark Jones previously told NBC. However, this pay-for-performance model leaves some less-popular organizations struggling to support their athletes, and only those likely to win a medal getting financial support.
USA Weightlifting, for instance, has an annual budget of $480,000, excluding $131,000 it receives from the USOC, to help provide funding support for its athletes and pay for training and competition expenses. Weightlifters likely to win a medal can receive a stipend of $4,000 a month, while those "likely to qualify" for the Olympics get $2,500. Weightlifters still in the development phase of their career are eligible to receive $750 a month.
USA Boxing also relies on a mixed system, especially because the team only allows amateurs to compete at the Olympics (though Team USA allowed pros to compete in Tokyo, spurred by the COVID-19-caused cancellation of the Americas Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event earlier this year). A sport-wide change in 2016 welcomed professional boxers into the Olympics for the first time, but USA Boxing held out longer.
The amateur boxers on the USA squad receive base stipends of $1,500 a month. They can also win world championship medal bonuses, like Olympic bonuses, which tier from $40,000 for a gold medal to $35,000 for silver and $30,000 for bronze, according to a team spokesperson.
Matthew Johnson, USA Boxing’s high performance director, notes that boxers have access to high end training facilities and top coaching, resources he says are estimated at $50,000 to $100,000 a year, which USA Boxing sees as its advantage over the professional world.
“A lot of times, people see what’s going directly into your bank account. But they don’t see all the other value that comes with being a part of Team USA, the resources and just the support that you have on a day-to-day basis,” said Matthew Johnson, USA Boxing’s high performance director. “That’s a big piece that we’re trying to educate our members on, to show the value of staying in the amateur program.”
Other organizations also provide monthly payments to athletes but don’t disclose the exact figures. USA Softball says it pays all of its athletes each month, including 15 players on the roster and three alternates, and provides money for meals on each trip. Most of the players have personal sponsors, too, a spokesperson said.
Unmish Parthasarathi, founder and executive director at consulting firm Picture Board Partners, tells CNBC one profitable career move for athletes is to go into coaching after retirement as people are willing to pay a premium for former Olympians.
Has COVID-19 affected how Olympic athletes get paid?
About 75% of the athletes responding to the USOPC survey reported losing income due to the pandemic. More than a quarter said they lost more than half of their income.
“It’s a little bit tough because at the end of the day my contract, that’s my salary,” track and field athlete Ryan Crouser told The Associated Press in March 2020. “That’s where I make the majority of my money.”
Another 28% of responders from the survey said they applied for and received unemployment benefits, while more than a third said at the time they weren’t sure how to apply or if they were eligible.
To help mitigate these lost earnings, the USOPC partnered with the Athletes’ Advisory Council and NGBs to raise more than $1.4 million for a COVID Athlete Assistance Fund, the organization announced in October 2020.
The efforts resulted in supplemental one-time stipends of $1,163 for 1,220 athletes in the U.S., the USOPC said.
“We heard directly from so many athletes and, with our incredible donors, recognized the opportunity to step in to help alleviate the financial burdens many Olympic and Paralympic athletes are facing,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said in the statement.
