With Paris 2024 behind us, the postmortems will now begin on the world’s grandest sporting fortnight, including Olympic medal hauls, new-found global recognition and, for some, prize money.

The Olympics are held to be the pinnacle of sporting participation and achievement, and the global TV audiences are immense. Commercially, the Games are said to be sport’s biggest showcase, even ahead of the FIFA World Cup, so it is curious that they have stayed – until now – relatively amateur in terms of the ethos and monetary recompense for athletes.

The fact is that many Olympic athletes competing in less commercial sports scrape by for a four-year cycle on a meagre National Olympic Committee (NOC) stipend, propped up by sponsorship and endorsement deals for those lucky enough to get them.

The accommodation in the athletes’ village may be convivial and the food provides ‘fuel’ but it is also far from luxurious. This week, returning to their usual ATP Tour routine, several of the world’s top men’s tennis players have said how lucky they feel to be back in hotels and eating food which is five-star compared with the Olympic village.

And the tennis players’ regular prize money is a world apart. Officially, Novak Djokovic received no financial reward for capturing the Olympic gold medal that has eluded him for so long. By contrast, the winner of the first men’s tennis event after the Olympics – the Canada Masters in Montreal – will take home $1,049,460 in prize money, while even the 28 first-round losers will be paid $27,165.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) still considers that financial incentives would go against the amateur ethos of the games and in my role as an Innecto Reward consultant this seems at odds with the Olympics’ commercial powerhouse status. I might expect to see bonuses, incentive schemes and prizes awarded – certainly medal winners - but up until now, this has not been the case.

So how are athletes being incentivised, and by whom?

Prizes that money can buy

Some NOCs have moved to provide more prize money and incentives for their competing athletes. According to Forbes, Hong Kong's Ka Long Cheung will have earned nearly £600,000 for winning a gold medal in fencing, while Poland's gold medalists will receive £63,000, a painting from a respected artist, an investment-grade diamond, a holiday voucher for two and in some cases an apartment.

Other rewards across competing nations may come in the form of bonuses, luxury watches or jewelry, cars, property, land and even cattle. More creative or sports-relevant options include businesses, food and lifetime gym access.

In some cases, the sports themselves have opted to award prize money. In athletics, for example, gold medalists have won cash prizes for the first time, a move described by World Athletics President Sebastian Coe as “a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognizing the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games.”

Prizes that money cannot buy

These are often more about the type of recognition that garners engagement and longer-term appreciation, and might include:

• Exemptions - from compulsory military service
• National honours - military promotions and national distinctions
• Naming rights – facilities being named after athletes
• Celebrity status – leading to increased profile and endorsement deals
• Tax breaks – special exemptions
• Enhanced or early pension – Serbian medal winners will become eligible for a national pension at 40. This may not be important to Djokovic with $185 million in career prize money, but could be life-changing for other athletes

There may be differing opinions on whether these Olympic rewards are fair, equitable or morally right. As ever with benefits and recognition it comes down to context, relevance and relative value.

At Innecto we work with clients across every sector to devise creative ways to incentivise and reward workers at every level. To date, our solutions have not included cattle, military exemptions or pensions at 40, but we have an open mind: we apply our experience and knowledge to each client’s unique position.

Could you benefit from an audit to better understand the competitiveness of your incentive scheme or benefits offering? If that is something you might be interested in, please contact mark.macoun@innecto.com or call our consultancy team on 020 3457 0894.

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