After the first 18 holes, the men’s Olympic golf tournament sees Hideki Matsuyama leading the standings at -8 with a two-shot advantage over Open Champion Xander Schauffele and three over Joaquin Niemann (find the partial standings here).
After the final day (Sunday for men, Thursday for women), the golfers will also have their awards ceremony, where the medals will be awarded, which are the only tangible prize awarded by the International Olympic Committee.
It is obvious that, for those who receive them, they will forever remain the sign of an unforgettable moment in their career.
On the other hand, a good part of the National Olympic Committees, together with the relative Federations, guarantee the medal winners an economic recognition, obviously differentiated based on the “metal” (by the way, in the Paris medals there is a little bit of the Eiffel Tower, Editor’s note).
According to a survey conducted by Forbes, 33 countries, out of a total of 206 participants, offer winning athletes cash prizes, which in some cases are very substantial.
Hong Kong (yes, you read that right) leads this particular ranking: in the case of a gold medal the athlete receives $768,000, for silver $384,000 and for bronze $192,000. Next up is Singapore with, respectively, $745,000, $373,000 and $186,000.
The United States follows a very “moderate” line: $37,500 for the gold medal, $22,500 for the silver and $15,000 for the bronze (it must be taken into account, however, that the US medal table is usually very large, so the total outlay is always considerable).
Our country is among the European ones, one of the most generous, awarding $196,000 to the winner of a gold medal, $100,000 for the silver and $50,000 for the bronze. Some countries have opted for “prizes” in kind.
Kazakhstan offers apartments to the winners. Malaysia has instead opted for foreign-made cars. South Korea, for its part, recognizes the winners a pension and, in the case of men, a special exemption from military service obligations.
The winner of the women's Olympic tournament, instead, will receive the invitation to the AIG Women's British Open that will be played from the 22nd to the 25th of this month, and the exemptions for the Majors of next year.
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