The Israel Olympic Committee will award gold medalists at the Beijing Olympic Games $140,000 each (NIS 500,000). A silver medalist will get $70,000, and bronze medalist will get about $47,000. The amounts are double prizes handed out at the 2004 Athens Games, when gold medalist Gal Friedman was NIS 240,000 for winning Israel's first Olympic gold.
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport will also award bonuses to Olympic medal winners, although the amount has not yet been determined. In 2004, the Ministry matched the bonuses awarder by the Israel Olympic Committee, but will probably not do so this year.
The bonuses for Olympic medalists is considered a major perk because Israel's sports sponsorship market is considered undeveloped. Although the bonuses of some other countries for their Olympic medalists are fairly low, the athletes can make a fortune in product endorsements. Germany, for example, gives Olympic gold medalists an $18,000 bonus, Canada awards them $16,000, and Japan $19,000.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 9, 2008
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