Some Olympians Return Home to More Than Just Applause

For some Olympic medalists, after the podium come the perks. CNBC notes that the International Olympic Committee doesn't hand out prize money itself to those who take home gold, but Forbes looked into the more than 200 countries participating in the Paris Games and found more than a handful who give six-figure bonuses to their gold medalists, and even for some silver and bronze wins. Hong Kong dangles an especially lucrative carrot, offering gold medalists $768,000; silver medalists earn nearly $385,000, while bronzers get just over $190,000. Even fourth-place finishers there can expect to receive $100,000. More on what other countries dole out:

• Pensions: Both Serbia and Malaysia offer pensions to its medalists, with the latter's ranging from $400 to $1,100 per month.

• Rent: Lithuania forks over that monthly payment for athletes once they retire.
• Poland's perks: This nation offers $82,000 for a gold medal, vacation vouchers, an investment-grade diamond, apartments, and a painting by a renowned Polish artist.
• Smells like team spirit: In Italy, team members who place get the same large payout as individual competitors—each athlete on the team gets $196,000 for a gold medal, $98,000 for silver, and $65,000 for bronze.
• Other perks: CNBC notes some of the more unusual gifts that athletes receive, including free food and teh tarik (a popular hot beverage) for life from a local chain to Malaysian athletes; free bags of rice (a perk seen by Japanese table tennis player Kasumi Ishikawa); and "five cows, a meatball restaurant, and a new house" given to gold-medal-winning badminton players Apriyani Rahayu and Greysia Polii of Indonesia.

• And more: Finance Magnates notes that winning South Koreans earn an exemption from mandatory military service, while Italy offers medalists a guaranteed job in the military or police service. Hungary's medalists, meanwhile, earn a free university education.
• United States: The US falls near the bottom on this incentives spectrum, with gold medalists earning a relatively paltry $37,500 for their efforts, per Quartz. The outlet notes that Maggie Steffens, captain of the women's water polo team, even took to asking online for financial support—which led to rapper Flavor Flav offering to serve as the team's sponsor and hype man.
• Left out: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Great Britain don't offer such incentives, though the latter's governing sports body does give out bonuses to medal winners. Check out some of the bonuses and perks that other nations give out here.

(More Olympic athletes stories.)