Whereas there isn’t a formal prize cash provided by World Aquatics or the Worldwide Olympic Committee on the Paris 2024 Summer season Olympic Video games, there are nonetheless massive monetary rewards on the road.
Apart from the immeasurable oblique profession and endorsement alternatives that come from profitable gold, some nations supply prize cash (Joseph Education’s well-known $SGP1 million prize from Singapore in 2016), whereas others supply less-tangible rewards, like army deferments in South Korea.
There isn’t any direct prize cash for Olympic success in swimming – although World Athletics drew consideration and ire of their friends by providing $2.4 million in Olympic prize cash in Paris – however American athletes have entry to the Operation Gold program.
This program awards prize cash to medalists on the Olympic Video games (and different main worldwide meets in non-Olympic years). This prize cash is exempt from NCAA guidelines that also disallow athletes from receiving prize cash for his or her athletic outcomes generally.
There have traditionally been two Operation Gold swimming pools for USA Swimmers to attract from: one from the USOPC, and one other from USA Swimming.
USOPC Operation Gold Cash
1st place – $37,500
2nd place – $22,500
third place – $15,000
This prize cash stays the identical from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
At the latest Olympics in Beijing, these payouts amounted to $5.6 million.
USA Swimming provided Operation Gold payouts on the 2016 Olympic Video games, however supply no details about Operation Gold applications on their web site. A USA Swimming spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for extra details about a USA Swimming Operation Gold program.
Coaches’ Incentives
USA Swimming does supply a Coach Incentive Program that gives a distribution of funds to coaches of particular person (American) Olympic medalists within the pool and in open water.
Whereas USA Swimming doesn’t outline how a lot cash is out there on this prize pool, it does share who’s eligible.
A. Major Coach:The coach who’s the coach of the athlete on the time of the medal-winning efficiency on the Operation Gold Competitors. The coach should have been teaching the athlete for not less than 90 consecutive days inside a 24-month interval previous to the medal-winning efficiency on the Operation Gold Competitors.
B. College Coach:The Head Coach of the College program who coached the athlete throughout his/her years at College. (If a College Coach is the Major Coach, they might not obtain credit score twice. The College Coach should have coached the athlete for 2 faculty seasons on the time of the medal-winning efficiency on the Operation Gold Competitors to obtain College Coach credit score.)
C. Developmental Coach:The coach(es) who offered the coaching basis for these athletes throughout a minimal of 24 consecutive months of the “crucial growth years” (ages 11-18).
D. Publish Developmental Coach:Any coach who has coached the athlete for not less than 24 consecutive months from age 18 onwards.
Major coaches obtain 4 shares of funding for a gold medal efficiency, two shares for a silver medal efficiency, and one share for a bronze medal efficiency. Coaches who coached an athlete for 5 years or extra consecutive years throughout their profession obtain an additional share.
The out there {dollars} can be divided by the full variety of shares to find out the worth of every share.