For the first time in its history, Canada will be awarding monetary incentives to its Olympic medal winners. From CBC:

A gold medal will be worth $20,000, a silver worth $15,000 and a bronze $10,000.

This would be the highest we’ve tracked so far. But we’ve only tracked four countries so far so maybe its not the time yet to make valid comparisons. Do check out what Malaysian, Azerbaijani, and Palestinian athletes receive as assistance/incentive in the links below.

Update: A listing of financial incentives to Olympic athletes from different countries is published at How Much Money Do Olympians Make.

Related:
The Money Report: Malaysia’s Incentives for Olympic Medalists
The Money Report: How Much Do Malaysia’s Olympic Athletes Make?
Money Stuff: Incentives for Azerbaijani Olympic Medalists
Palestine: How Much Money Do Olympians Make?

Earlier, we reported that Malaysia is giving a monthly allowance of RM1,000 (equivalent to US$318.557 according to this currency site) to its athletes who qualified for Beijing.

But does Malaysia give incentives to athletes who win an Olympic medal as Azerbaijan does? The answer is yes. This is the current incentive scheme according to Malaysia’s staronline:

Under the current NSC incentive scheme, an Olympic gold is worth RM160,000 while it is RM80,000 for a silver and RM40,000 for a bronze.

The pension scheme that takes effect after the athlete retires currently awards RM3,500 for a gold, RM1,500 for a silver and RM1,000 for a bronze.

However, expect Beijing medalists to receive higher amounts as sports officials recently agreed to raise the incentives since the current one is “too low compared to what some countries are giving”.

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How much money do Olympians make? It depends on the allowance they receive from their government, their incentives when they win a medal, and whether they have sponsorships as well as financial support from private entities.

We mentioned earlier that Nader Al Masri gets financial support consisting of $100 per month from the Palestinian Athletics Federation.

Azerbaijan, as we stated here, allocated the following medal incentives to its athletes during the 2004 Athens Olympiad:

Gold: AZN 100,000 and NOC–AZN 50,000
Silver: AZN 50,000 and NOC AZN 30,000
Bronze: AZN 25,000 and AZN 20,000

Reports have it that these amounts will be increased in Beijing but we don’t know by how much. By the way, for those of you who must know, AZN 100,000 is equal to USD 120,700.06 according to this currency converter.

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If you won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, how much prize/incentive money will you receive from your country’s sports authorities? If you are from Azerbaijan you will receive more than AZN 100,000 and NOC–AZN 50,000.

We have to admit that we don’t know the difference between AZN and NOC-AZN and why the athletes’ incentives are given in the two currencies and not summed up in one total. Anyways, AZN 100,000 is equal to USD 120,700.06 according to this currency converter.

Here’s the announcement, courtesy of Trend News, about the increase in prizes for Azerbaijani athletes :

It is expected that the prizes for Azerbaijani sportsmen, who won medals during the Beijing Olympic Games is to be increased.

“The prizes for sportsmen who gained medals in the Olympic Games is expected to be increased, which depends on the Azerbaijani President’s issue,” Chingiz Huseynzade, Vice President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Azerbaijan, stated to TrendNews.

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According to Australia’s ABC News, the United Kingdom may be spending around one billion dollars (we assume we’re talking Australian currency here) to land in fourth place during this upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.

They’re gonna spend that much money? We’re all for Olympic pride and glory but isn’t there such a thing as too much spending?