What can Crew GB stars hope to earn after Olympic medals?

Standing on the Olympic podium, medal in hand, is the head of an athlete’s profession. Years of gruelling coaching, willpower and sacrifice have led to this second. Every little thing has paid off – probably in additional methods than one.

Within the UK, there’s typically not large cash in sport itself, until you are taking part in on the prime ranges of soccer. There may be, nonetheless, cash to be comprised of promoting and sponsorship.

And this helps to incentivise sports activities participation, particularly in case your chosen self-discipline feels “a bit forgotten”, as one Crew GB gold medallist tells the BBC.

So, how a lot cash may an Olympic medal translate into for GB’s stars?

Claire Bowden-Hughes, founder and director of En2End sports activities occasions company, says successful any Olympic medal “considerably enhances an athlete’s marketability”, making them extra engaging to world manufacturers.

This will result in substantial earnings by sponsorships and endorsements.

Excessive-profile athletes like GB sprinter Dina Asher–Smith, who has received Olympic medals in Rio, Tokyo and Paris, plus a number of others at World and European Championships – “can earn something between £1m to £10m yearly from endorsement offers,” Bowden-Hughes says. “As an illustration, her offers with Nike, Hublot, and Müller are extremely profitable.”

Bike owner Emma Finucane seems set to develop into one of many greatest British names to emerge from the Paris Video games. The 21-year-old was a part of the group that set a brand new world report as they took gold within the ladies’s group dash. She went on to bag herself a bronze within the keirin and on Sunday hopes to go for gold once more.

Finucane “has the potential to earn important revenue given her latest successes and excessive visibility”, says Bowden-Hughes.

One other gold would imply “her marketability will skyrocket” and “she may probably earn something between £1m to £3m yearly from varied model offers and endorsements”, she predicts.

And it does not need to be a gold. A medal of any steel will do, the specialists say.

Whereas a bronze medallist who just isn’t but an enormous family title could not earn as a lot as a gold medallist, substantial sums of between £10,000 to £50,000 per 12 months can nonetheless be on the desk, Bowden-Hughes suggests.

She cites the instance of diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix – daughter of First Dates star Fred Sirieix – who claimed bronze along with her accomplice within the ladies’s synchronised 10m platform contest.

However in addition to the person, earnings “actually rely upon the game and its profile”, says Nigel Currie, a sponsorship and advertising marketing consultant.

Rower Georgie Brayshaw, whose group took a nail-biting gold within the ladies’s quadruple sculls, tells the BBC she has not but been approached by any manufacturers providing sponsorship offers or endorsements, however “it could be wonderful” if she did.

Nationwide Lottery funding by British Rowing pays her £28,000 yearly – the very best degree accessible – and British Rowing covers the prices of competitions and camps. However a sponsorship would make all of it a bit extra “possible”, she says.

“Rowers are a bit forgotten in sponsorships, each personally and as a group as a complete,” the 30-year-old provides.

Whereas the group are “very motivated” and wish to win whatever the monetary rewards, medal bonuses would probably make the game extra interesting to others, Brayshaw believes.

She’s not speaking about large particular person offers both. She suggests grocery store sponsorships that might result in subsidies on groceries for athletes.

The comparatively quick careers {of professional} athletes – who typically retire of their 30s and even youthful – might also immediate them to look elsewhere for sources of revenue. Or for these in sports activities with a smaller following, methods to maintain their profile elevated in between the Video games.

The general public curiosity in athletes within the wake of an Olympics can result in TV appearances and e book deal gives which “will be from something within the vary of £10,000 as much as £500,000 plus, relying on the athlete’s profile and story,” says Bowden-Hughes.

Strictly Come Dancing has seen a number of Olympians and Paralympians grace its sprung ground, with gold-medal successful swimmer Tom Dean one of many newest celebrities introduced to be participating on this 12 months’s present.

One former Strictly contestant is long-jumper Greg Rutherford, whose gold at London 2012 first propelled his title into households throughout the UK.

“He did nearly each TV present going,” observes Currie. Rutherford appeared in a few of British TV’s greatest programmes, together with Masterchef and Dancing on Ice.

However the pay pales compared to what’s obtained by superstars like Simone Biles and Usain Bolt, whose sporting prowess has made them world family names. This enchantment to manufacturers has, in flip, made these sportspeople multi-millionaires.

Forbes estimates that Biles – who now has 11 Olympic medals – made $7.1m (£5.6m) in 2023, $7m of which got here from endorsements. Bolt has an estimated web value of $90m, in accordance with CelebrityNetWorth. It wasn’t till their appearances on the Olympic stage that they reached the heights of fame that they at the moment get pleasure from.

However the profitable offers that may very well be on provide right this moment for the likes of Crew GB’s gold-winning 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson are a far cry from what Olympians obtained in many years previous.

Following her personal 800m victory on the Tokyo 1964 Video games, Ann Packer “did a fast advert for Heinz beans… after which I had a three-year contract with Bovril”.

It left her with “a really modest sum of money”, she advised BBC Radio 4’s At this time programme. Nevertheless it was sufficient to arrange a house along with her husband, fellow Olympian Robbie Brightwell.

Packer retired at age 22 in an effort to revenue from her win, since Olympic guidelines again then prevented skilled athletes from competing.

In contrast to right this moment, prizes was offered too. “A highly regarded one was a picnic hamper,” Packer mentioned. “You would possibly get a tea set, a set of Pyrex dishes, cookware… it’s higher than a kick within the enamel isn’t it?”

The 82-year-old mentioned she had been pleased, and the Nineteen Sixties and 2020s have been non-comparable. However one factor hadn’t modified.

“I consider that the athletes which are competing right this moment are nonetheless motivated in precisely the identical approach as we have been,” she mentioned. “Not by the cash, however by proving themselves to be both the most effective they are often – or the most effective on the earth.”