How much is an Olympic gold medal worth?

ShinyStuff said:
dragafem said:
I dont think it is fair.It should be pure gold! Why? As you probably know there is no price money involved with any place at the Olympics. The only contribution they get it is coming from their country if they placed in the first 6,if any. What they get for sure is RESPECT and FAME!
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I don't think that is true.. the Aust Olympic Committee gives bonus payments to all 1st 2ns and 3rd place winners. Something like $10,000 for 1st... but I think it has gone up.
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What I was saying is there is no prize money involved from the organizing committee as compare to, lets say Wimbledon or US Open:) Of course they get money from the government just like you mentioned...
 
Personally knew an paraolympian who won gold, silver and bronze in his event over several olympics. As far as I am aware, he never got any prize money, or bonuses, from the Australian government for his efforts.
 
Athlete should not get any payment from the government, who are they to receive it? They are merely an athlete, it is just a profession the same like any profession. Why should taxpayers pay for their prize money? If any rewards to be made, it should come from the sponsors and not government. This athlete/celeb worshipping society is stupid. They are the ones playing/competing but why the spectators can get so emotionally involved?
 
popcorn said:
Athlete should not get any payment from the government, who are they to receive it? They are merely an athlete, it is just a profession the same like any profession. Why should taxpayers pay for their prize money?
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I think it's the circuses component of "bread and circuses".
 
popcorn said:
Athlete should not get any payment from the government, who are they to receive it? They are merely an athlete, it is just a profession the same like any profession. Why should taxpayers pay for their prize money? If any rewards to be made, it should come from the sponsors and not government. This athlete/celeb worshipping society is stupid. They are the ones playing/competing but why the spectators can get so emotionally involved?
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So would you agree them getting all the endorsement and appearance fees? Probably not:)Olympics happen every 4 years and I believe they train extremely hard just to get in the olympic team.I'd rather give them some money than 1.8 mill to Djoker to win another grand slam:)
 
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money of the government for being an athlete, sounds like the dole. If they were to pay it, then maybe the state governments can pay for people representing their states in sport. Can't see the Tassie government doing that, they haven't even got enough money to buy a coffee!
 
Argentum said:
imagine if a stacker trained only to get his hands on that gold medal and now he finds outthis
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You mean that I've trained jumping that bloody fence over and over again just to get Gold in the High Jump for that???? :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
popcorn said:
Athlete should not get any payment from the government, who are they to receive it? They are merely an athlete, it is just a profession the same like any profession. Why should taxpayers pay for their prize money? If any rewards to be made, it should come from the sponsors and not government. This athlete/celeb worshipping society is stupid. They are the ones playing/competing but why the spectators can get so emotionally involved?
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Than how would the athletes get to the competition ,who would pay for travel & accommodation ,
I was a professional athlete as a teenager
MY club used to pay me for travel & accommodating ,but I had to where the club colors not the state colors :D
Way worth it ,
But to do it as an adult ,there was no future in it ,so I gave it up ( Track & field Hammer throwing )
I believe the Government should fork out for the travel & accom ,but no prize $
If we had to do it of our own back there would hardly be any competitors & most of them would be drug dealers :(
 
spannermonkey said:
I believe the Government should fork out for the travel & accom ,but no prize $
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The way you say that, it sounds like people have a right to taxpayer money just because they can't make it off their own backs.

Why should taxpayers fork out the money to pay for these bums who don't want to get a real job?
 
hawkeye said:
spannermonkey said:
I believe the Government should fork out for the travel & accom ,but no prize $
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The way you say that, it sounds like people have a right to taxpayer money just because they can't make it off their own backs.

Why should taxpayers fork out the money to pay for these bums who don't want to get a real job?
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Do you have any idea how many hours a pro athlete puts in to get there
Pro athletes LAZY BUMS :lol:
If we want to have the Olympic Games & such things ,than somebody has to give somewhere

But at the same time after my adventures ,I can't watch any pro sport (except beach volleyball & womes hockey :D)
I don't like where it's all going in general .
 
spannermonkey said:
Do you have any idea how many hours a pro athlete puts in to get there
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So? I don't see the relevance.

spannermonkey said:
If we want to have the Olympic Games & such things ,than somebody has to give somewhere
.
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Sums it up in one. I don't want the Olympic Games, they are essentially useless and don't provide any value to the community. If people want to pay for them let them get funded in the way say tennis or football or any sport that people actually *want* to watch does. If people don't want to watch someone twirling a hammer :) they shouldn't be forced to pay for it.
 
Actually, the vast majority of Australian athletes who compete in the Olympics are considered amateurs, as opposed to professionals athletes (eg. AFL or NRL footy players) - in that they receive little to no payment for the countless hours of training, equipment costs, coaching and competitions (of which there are comp entry fees, flights/travel, accommodation, food, visas if heading overseas, etc). Most if not all juggle their training/competition schedules with fulltime jobs, family, and other commitments.

I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in the cynicism expressed in some of the comments above. I'm actually training and aspiring to compete in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, although I intend to fund my own way there and not expect a handout from the govt or anyone else for that matter. Since the sport that I do isn't a mainstream sport (like most sports in the Olympics), there's virtually no funding for it anyway.

Then there's the question of why I'd spend the next 1570 days (or 2920 days until Aug 2020) trying to go for something that I may not even end up qualifying for. Well...there's a 101 different things I could do with my time and $$ but I guess it came down to choosing a vision/dream that is going to demand everything of me physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually etc. I could just be like the average Joe and that would be all good and fine - but in the end I really had to ask myself how far above and beyond did I want to go. That's what the Olympics mean to me anyway - even with the politics and pork-barrelling, as an athlete it represents the opportunity to perform at the highest level, and celebrate the journey that it took to get there.
 
Au.Ag.Mzch said:
Actually, the vast majority of Australian athletes who compete in the Olympics are considered amateurs, as opposed to professionals athletes (eg. AFL or NRL footy players) - in that they receive little to no payment for the countless hours of training, equipment costs, coaching and competitions (of which there are comp entry fees, flights/travel, accommodation, food, visas if heading overseas, etc). Most if not all juggle their training/competition schedules with fulltime jobs, family, and other commitments.

I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in the cynicism expressed in some of the comments above. I'm actually training and aspiring to compete in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, although I intend to fund my own way there and not expect a handout from the govt or anyone else for that matter. Since the sport that I do isn't a mainstream sport (like most sports in the Olympics), there's virtually no funding for it anyway.

Then there's the question of why I'd spend the next 1570 days (or 2920 days until Aug 2020) trying to go for something that I may not even end up qualifying for. Well...there's a 101 different things I could do with my time and $$ but I guess it came down to choosing a vision/dream that is going to demand everything of me physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually etc. I could just be like the average Joe and that would be all good and fine - but in the end I really had to ask myself how far above and beyond did I want to go. That's what the Olympics mean to me anyway - even with the politics and pork-barrelling, as an athlete it represents the opportunity to perform at the highest level, and celebrate the journey that it took to get there.
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Totally agree with you,but as you know this forum is about silver stacking and not doing any sport:) So dont be upset by the comments, some people here just dont get the love of any sport.They only waiting to the silver to go up:)
 
spannermonkey said:
Than how would the athletes get to the competition ,who would pay for travel & accommodation ,
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Club can pay it, raise the fund from sponsors or whoever cares and pay it. Other normal professions don't get paid by gov for interstate and international travels, company pays for that. Or pay your own and claim deduction like the rest of the professions.

Countless hours of training for professional athlete? Your choice of profession, you work on it, why should everyone else foot the bill, doesn't make sense.

I heard sport used to occupy news timeslots on weekend only for few hours. Nowadays it takes half section of every news, something's wrong as if after you are focused on reading/knowing/hearing the serious news then come the sport to entertain you to calm you down, everything is fine again.
 
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