Olympics 2024: What's a gold medal worth and who are the richest athletes?

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The 2024 Summer Olympics are well and truly underway in Paris, with 10,500 athletes from every corner of the globe competing across 32 different sports.

As you'd expect from a sporting festival that's host to 329 events across 19 days of competition, the Olympics is a bit of a dream for statistics geeks - especially when world records are being set left, right and centre (and we haven't even got to the athletics yet).

There are also plenty of fascinating numbers away from the pool and track though - including those with a financial bent.

Australian gold medallist Jessica Fox bites her medal as she poses on the podium during the Canoe Slalom medal ceremony after the Women's Kayak Single Final at the Olympic Games at Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on July 28, 2024 in Paris, France. Photo

So to get in on the action, we've pulled together some of the most interesting financial figures related to the Olympics that you might want to know about.

Note: Figures used are in Australian Dollars unless otherwise indicated.

1. What does it cost to host the Olympics?

Putting together one of the largest sporting events on earth is not a cheap exercise. Especially when you're not only catering for thousands of competitors, but the tens of thousands of support staff, media and volunteers involved.

Cathy Freeman of Australia holds the Olympic Torch prior to lighting the Olympic Flame during the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Homebush Bay, Sydney, Australia. Mandatory Credit: Al Bello /Allsport.
Cathy Freeman holds the Olympic Torch during the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The Sydney Olympics cost an estimated $US5.2 billion. Photo: Al Bello /Allsport

And then there are the spectators. It's estimated that over the course of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the French capital will see an influx of over 15 million visitors.

So how much do host cities need to shell out to make everything happen? Estimates vary. The Paris 2024 Organising Committee supposedly had a total budget of $7.26 billion, but other sources suggest that the real cost could be double that amount.

Take a study produced by Oxford University earlier this year. It estimated that the Paris Games would cost US$8.7 billion (around $13.6 billion).

While that's obviously a lot, it only comes in at number five on the list of most expensive modern summer Olympics hosted.

It's worth noting that while the analysis includes operational and construction costs, it excludes indirect capital costs (e.g. road and rail upgrades) which are spent as part of the preparation but aren't directly related to the staging of the Games.

2. How much are the Olympics broadcasting rights worth?

The cost of hosting the Games may be eyewatering, but so is the cost of winning the rights to broadcast the Olympics. The tradeoff for broadcasters, of course, is those billions of eyeballs that are estimated to tune in throughout.

Rights are typically negotiated on a country or regional basis, and they can also include more than one Games, which means different broadcasters will ultimately end of paying different amounts.

For instance, in 2014, American broadcaster NBC reportedly paid US$7.75 billion (around $8.4 billion at the time) to extended their rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States until 2032.

Closer to home, Nine Entertainment reportedly paid $305 million in early 2023 for the exclusive Australian broadcasting rights for the next five Olympic Games. That includes Paris (2024), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032), plus the Winter Olympics in Milan (2026) and the French Alps (2030).

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself, it brought in roughly US$4.6 billion in broadcasting revenue alone for the period between 2017 and 2021, which covered the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

3. How much money do you get for winning a gold medal?

While the prospect of Olympic glory will no doubt be the driving motivator for most athletes who get the chance to compete in Paris, some countries are offering their own athletes an extra incentive if they're able to bring home a gold, silver or bronze medal.

What does Australia pay for a gold medal, you ask? As part of the Medal Incentive Funding scheme run by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Australian athletes will receive $20,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal and $10,000 for a bronze medal.

Lani Pallister of Team Australia embraces teammates after winning gold in the Women
Lani Pallister embraces her Australian teammates after winning gold in the Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay Final at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images.

It's fair to say that the incentives on offer to other athletes are a tad more generous though. Athletes representing Hong Kong, for example, will earn $1.18 million for a gold medal, $590,000 for a silver medal and $295,000 for a bronze medal.

Singapore's not far behind with a gold medal bonus of $1.15 million, $575,000 for a silver medal and $288,000 for a bronze medal.

Now, not all countries pay a medal bonus (the British Olympic Association, for instance), but here's a non-exhaustive list of some of the more generous nations when it comes to medal incentives.

4. Which Australian received the largest medal bonus at Paris 2024?

The 2024 Paris Olympics proved to be Australia's best ever performance from a medals perspective, with Aussie athletes winning 18 gold medals, 19 silver medals and 16 bronze medals all up.

Interestingly considering Australia's success in the pool, it wasn't a swimmer who came away from the Paris Games with the largest medal bonus though.

At least, that's according to research conducted by digital lender MoneyMe.

That title reportedly went to pole vaulter Nina Kennedy whose success in the women's pole vault not only landed her Australia's first ever gold medal in the event, but also a $74,000 payout from the World Athletics Committee which will comes on top of the AOC's gold medal bonus.

5. How much is a gold medal worth?

5084 medals have been produced for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but spectators might be interested to know that the most coveted of those aren't actually as valuable as they may seem - at least, not when it comes to the value of the metal.

Each gold medal made for the Paris Games weighs in at 529 grams, so based on the current price of gold (roughly $3,770/ounce) each medal would be worth a tidy $70,000.

what is an olympic gold medal actually worth

That's not the case though. While gold medals are coated in six grams of gold they are mostly composed of silver, though they also contain 18 grams of iron from the Eiffel Tower as a unique touch.

So given all that, a recent analysis conducted by Oxford Economics estimated that each gold medal was likely to have a valued around $1579 based on the metals alone. That's not counting the Eiffel Tower iron, of course, which it says is priceless.

6. Who are the highest-paid athletes at Paris 2024?

Many would argue that one of the best parts of the Olympics is that it shines the spotlight on sports and athletes that don't typically get much attention from the general sporting public outside of the Games.

At the same time though, some of the world's most high-profile basketball, football, tennis and golf players have also made the trip to Paris in an attempt to add Olympic gold to their - in most cases - already bulging trophy cabinets.

So who are among the best-paid athletes competing in Paris? Based on the Forbes list of World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2024, it's a cohort dominated by golfers and basketballers.

Top of the pile is Spanish golfer Jon Rahm, whose recent move to LIV Golf means that his on-field and off-field earnings total US$218 million. In fact, Forbes has him as the world's highest earning golfer and second highest-earning athlete overall behind footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

LeBron James of United States during the Men
US basketballer LeBron James is one of the highest paid athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Photo: Christina Pahnke - sampics/Getty Images.

Next is captain of the USA Men's National Basketball Team, LeBron James, whose earnings total US$128 million.

James is not only the highest earning basketballer on Forbes's list, but possibly the richest athlete competing in Paris given that his net worth is said to be in the vicinity of US$1.2 billion.

Polish tennis star and current women's world number one, Iga Swiatek, could well be the highest paid woman competing at the Olympics.

She topped Forbes' 2023 list of the World's Highest-Paid Female Athletes with US$24 million in earnings.

Can't get enough of the Olympics and Australian Olympians? Check out our interviews with skateboarder Chloe Covell and footballer Mackenzie Arnold.

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Tom Watson is a senior journalist at Money magazine, and one of the hosts of the Friends With Money podcast. He's previously worked as a journalist covering everything from property and consumer banking to financial technology. Tom has a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.