How much can triathletes earn from competing at the Olympic Games?
The subject of earning potential for Olympians is a complex and sometimes controversial topic. But we've given it a go…
The Olympics is the chance to win sporting immortality and join the pantheon of all-time greats. But is the golden ticket to compete also the golden egg of financial opportunity?
The Games have long since moved on from the amateur era and corinthian spirit of yore. Sport is business and professional triathletes know they could be set up for life if they can perform on their biggest day on the biggest stage.
To get an insight into how much a triathlete could earn from being successful at an Olympic Games, we turned to an experienced sports management professional who has worked both for Olympic sponsors advising on athlete selection and with multiple Olympic medallists from a range of nations.
Their task – on the condition of anonymity – was to put some numbers to the medals, and having discussed it extensively, this is the considered verdict.
How much prize money do you win in triathlon at the Olympics?
Zero. Let’s get this out of the way first. Like almost every other sport of the Paris 2024 Games there is no actually prize money on offer for triathlon. World Athletics has bucked this trend, and received plenty of criticism for its decision.
The small caveat is that the Olympic triathlon does count towards the final World Triathlon Championship Series standings.
Unlike the last WTCS race in Hamburg, which put up a total prize purse of $150k, it offers no prize money. But points accrued will help an athlete’s overall WTCS position and help them earn a larger share of the $291,500 bonus pool.
How much can you earn from being a triathlete at the Olympics?
Prize money is not the story because the real earning opportunity comes from endorsements such as bike, shoe and nutrition sponsors, or even non-endemic partners who might not have an obvious link with triathlon but want to align themselves with sporting greatness.
The earning potential can depend on several factors. The athlete’s home country, for example, has an impact. German, US, Australian or UK triathletes, where there is a bigger domestic market, have an edge here.
Social media presence and the numbers of engaged followers is also a tangible metric potential commercial partners will use because they can gauge how much of a return they might get.
A triathlete with 500,000 followers is more attractive than another with 5,000 and can already command more sponsorship. If there is a percentage bonus offered for Olympic success, you can see how their existing reach helps amplify their income.
The increase in sponsorship from an Olympic appearance can be split twofold:
- How much the triathlete has written into existing contracts
- How much they can earn from future contracts as an Olympian
The first option is where smart negotiation when signing a contract is key. In general, however, merely qualifying for the Games is often not enough to earn substantial bonuses.
Triathletes are often nailed-on picks where Olympic medals, not appearances, govern the financial return. Or they might come from a smaller nation where selection is almost always guaranteed and is already part of the package.
There might be a £1,000 bonus for making the team, for example, and if an athlete had four or five sponsors that all adds up. But again it is not where the real money lies.
As for earning potential as a Paris Olympian, with 55 male and 55 female triathletes on the start-list for the Games, the club may not be exclusive enough for large national sponsors. There won’t be another Olympics for another four years and often Ironman and increasingly T100 racing offers a bigger glow in the meantime.
How much can you earn from winning a triathlon medal at the Olympics?
This is where the figures start to get interesting. It once again depends on what is written to the contracts already in place, but for an already high profile athlete it’s not unusual for a medal bonus to be as much as £10,000 for bronze, £25,000 for silver and £50,000 for gold. If you have a number of sponsors covering clothing, shoes, bike and nutrition, for example, this figure quickly adds up.
There is also the possibility of non-endemic partners which could be more lucrative still. Firstly, because they might come from more cash-rich sectors, such as financial services, for example, that have much larger marketing budgets than a bike company.
Secondly, without dealing in day-to-day discussions with other triathletes, they might not be as aware of the current market value as endemic brands would be. This is where a triathlete could be rewarded with a contract up to double the value of endemic sponsors.
One interesting point about medal bonuses. With triathlon having only two gold medals up for grabs from Sydney to Rio, there was the chance to join an exclusive club. This put more of a premium on their worth, compared to say, swimming or track cycling.
With the introduction of the mixed team relay, each Games sees the potential of an additional 12 medallists, but relay medals don’t hold the cache of individual results.
This actually caught a few brands out following the Tokyo Olympics where the existing contracts just stated ‘Olympic medal winner’ and didn’t stipulate a reduced bonus for relay success. It’s likely that contracts for Paris and beyond have been adjusted for this.
What about future contracts?
This is where the multiplying effect of Olympic success comes in. As well as any bonus built into existing deals, the athlete has more bartering power when it comes to renegotiating sponsorship.
If they earned £50,000 in sponsorship a year before the Olympic medal, it’s not unreasonable to suggest it could be more than double when it comes to renewal, particularly if the medal success has struck a chord with the wider public and the athlete’s social and media reach has risen greatly.
A note of caution, though. While the ‘next contract’ will be bigger, retaining this may depend on results thereafter. Sports marketing is fickle and – while there are exceptions – previous Olympic medallists often don’t have the pulling power of the most recent Olympic medallists.
However, if managed correctly there can be a long tail to the earning potential – running well into retirement, where ambassador and media roles and corporate speaking engagements can flourish.
How much can triathletes make from a home Olympics?
A final point to make is around a home Olympics because they often represent an outlier for earning opportunity. Think the GB athletes in 2012, the French in 2024 or even the US stars eagerly eyeing a chance at Los Angeles 2028.
Here, it’s not quite all bets are off, but the earning potential accelerates. Alistair and Jonny Brownlee were memorably on the front of the BT phone book leading into 2012, as brands scrambled to activate their marketing campaigns ahead of the guaranteed buzz.
The French triathletes will have experienced something similar heading into Paris, and the US athletes will have the opportunity next. Imagine how Taylor Knibb’s earning potential increases if she wins one, two or even three medals (thanks to competing in the cycling time-trial too) in France.
There’s also the post-competition glow of the domestic Games. If the casual UK sports fan is asked about the medal-winning exploits of the team across all sports, not just triathlon, it’s often the London 2012 stars that come to mind first. Case in point, the Brownlees are still far more famous than Alex Yee.
Putting a number on this is difficult. At the upper limit, accepting that triathlon is not football, but has marketing appeal to an audience with above average spending power, it could be anything up to £200,000 for a blue chip non-endemic sponsorship.
Totalling all that up and over the years that follow, a gold medal may well result in a £1,000,000 boost. A home Games gold medal, even more.
*We’ve been supported in this article on the condition of anonymity with insight from a leading practitioner who has worked both with multiple Olympic medal winners but also for Olympic sponsors.
Tim Heming
Freelance triathlon journalist 
