Athletics

Record bonus! 280,000 euros for Olympic gold

The Olympic medals are a real windfall for our track and field athletes - if you win one.

(Bild: Olympic Games)

If an Austrian athlete wins a medal at the Games in Paris (which is quite possible), record bonuses await them. Gold is rewarded with around 280,000, silver with 127,000 and bronze with 74,000 euros. This also puts Austria at the top of the global league table ...

How is the highest gold prize for an ÖLV athlete to date made up? The lion's share comes from a deal that the Austrian Athletics Federation negotiated with the "Helvetia" insurance company. Helvetia will pay 205,000 euros for an Olympic athletics victory by an ÖLV athlete (as it did for Tokyo 2021). In addition, World Athletics will pay 50,000 dollars (approx. 46,000 euros) to every Olympic champion in athletics for the first time in history. The Austrian Olympic Committee (ÖOC) has also increased its traditional medal bonuses in the form of Philharmonic coins and is rewarding gold with 20,000 euros.

Finally, and less well known, the ÖLV also pays the athlete 10,000 euros for Olympic gold. The coach also receives the same amount. In addition to the 280,000 euros, there is certainly a bonus that is not known to the public, which the athlete has negotiated with their supplier.

The 127,000 euros for silver are made up as follows: 100,000 euros ("Helvetia"), 17,000 euros (ÖOC) and 10,000 euros (ÖLV); the 74,000 euros for bronze are made up of 50,000 euros ("Helvetia"), 14,000 euros (ÖOC) and 10,000 euros (ÖLV).

Chance for throwing duo
On paper at least, Lukas Weißhaidinger (discus) and Victoria Hudson (javelin) have a good chance of winning one of these big medal prizes. Weißhaidinger has already received 50,000 euros each from "Helvetia" for bronze at the 2019 World Championships and the 2021 Olympics. Incidentally, the gold bonus of 205,000 euros is based on the (usually) 205 participating countries at the Olympics or World Championships. The financial incentive is of course great for the ÖLV athletes, but Lukas Weißhaidinger or Victoria Hudson will certainly not throw a centimeter more or less in Paris if they make it to the final.

Clubs also benefit
In Austria, it is not only the athletes who benefit from a bonus system. The ÖLV also rewards the clubs, "which have almost always done the groundwork on the road to success". For an athlete's participation in the Olympics, the club in question receives 1000 euros, for a top 8 place 1500 euros.