2008 Olympics Cash Award & Sausages for Life for Winning Gold, Silver, Bronze Medals

During the Olympics Opening Ceremony last night, a comment was made regarding some countries giving cash awards to medal winners. When the Canadian Team marched into the Bird's Nest at the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, China, it was reported that Canada will be awarding cash prizes for medal winners for the first time. In the U.S., winning athletes have a chance at endorsement opportunities that are worth far more than the cash prizes given by the U.S. Other countries have huge awards for anyone winning a medal.

Most Unusual Award
One unusual prize will be awarded to Belarus athletes who win a medal: free meat and sausage for the rest of their lives!

The women's basketball team will get the reward if they win gold, silver, or bronze. The reward will be given by Belatmeat, a producer of meat and frozen foods. Cash rewards for Belarusian athletes are $100,000 for gold, $50,000 for silver, and $30,000 for bronze.

Canada
$20,000 for each gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze according to the CBC. This is the first time that Canada is paying its medal winners at a summer Olympics. The philosophy is that Canada is going to put the bulk of the reward money toward the top performers rather than spreading the money thinly throughout the Canadian Olympic athletes.

Philippines
$237,000 for gold medal which includes government and corporate sponsorship awards according to I'm Proudly Filipino. The Philippines have really upped their awards, especially through the corporate sponsors. The most recent Philippines medal was a silver in boxing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Philippines has not won an Olympic Gold Medal. Boxer Manny Pacquiao may be the country's best hope for a medal. He one the WBC lightweight title in June.

Dubai
A UAE competitor taking gold at the Beijing Olympic Games will be awarded Dh1 million. There is a Dh750,000 prize for silver and Dh500,00 for bronze. I was unable to find a currency converter for the Dubai currency equivalent to US Dollars. The UAE will send their largest ever squad to the Olympics. It was mentioned during the Olympics Opening Ceremony that Dubai offers incentives to athletes around the world to compete for Dubai, if they cannot qualify for the Olympics in their home country.

China
The most celebrated winners could receive more than one million yuan (about $150,000) in cash bonuses, according to Chinese media reports.

Georgia
According to an article in The Financial, Georgia will give GEL 1 million cash for each gold medal. Plugging that amount into a currency converter as 1 Georgian GEL = 0.706614 USD, worked out to $706,000 US Dollars! Georgia was in the news yesterday when it was reported that Russia had dropped bombs on Georgia during a civil struggle.

Russia
According to Bloomberg News, Russia plans to triple the cash prize it pays gold medalists at the Beijing Olympic Games. There will be an award of 100,000 euros - $157,355 - compared with the $50,000 offered at previous Olympics, Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said. Russian medalists sometimes receive cars, apartments or additional cash.

Ghana
$15,000 for silver, $10,000 for bronze.

Great Britain
According to an article in The Telegraph UK, medal winners will get to choose a new Alfa Romeo from the manufacturer. Track and field stars will also get cash awards of £5,000 (approx. $10,000), £4,000 or £3,000 for gold, silver and bronze medals respectively in a deal with Norwich Union. A judo gold medal winner will win a £20,000 bonus ($38,000). Sailing medalists will win up to £10,000.

Thailand
According to the Taipei Times, Gold medalists will earn 10 million baht ($314,000), silver medal winners will win six million baht, and bronze medal winners will win four million baht. The money will be paid over a 20-year period rather as a lump sum, to prevent winners from spending it all at once. The article explains that in the past, winners have had unpleasant experiences with the huge windfall.

India
Special cash awards ranging from Rs. 50,000/ to Rs. 5.00 Iakh are given since 1986 for winning medals in specified international sports events in all disciplines which are included in the Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Games.

An article posted at 2008games bejing reports the following:
Lithuania: $100,000 for each gold medal and a BMW
Kazakhstan: $100,000
Australia: AU$20,000