The glory of winning a gold medal is a massive incentive for athletes competing in the Olympic Games. But the impressive bonuses add another more lucrative dimension to the games.
Successful athletes from Indonesia are awarded a prize of $346,000 for gold, not a bad day at the office at all. Singapore offers its successful Olympians even more cash, around $737,000. And Malaysian gold medalists even get life-long pensions.
Britain, like several other European nations, offers its athletes year-long funding and training but no bumper payout. Whereas American competitors get $37,500 for every gold they take home.
Kazakhstan proved to be among the most generous states when it comes to Olympic medals, offering $250,000 for each gold medal taken home by its athletes. For a silver medal athletes get $150,000, and for a bronze one - $75,000.
Note that, in addition to payments from the government of Kazakhstan, athletes receive various bonuses from regional administrations and federations of their sports - for example, apartments, and cars.
