Winning a medal at the Paralympic or Olympic Games is a life-changing moments for athletes—not only do they take home sporting glory, but many also receive impressive cash prizes.
But during the Paralympic Games now taking place in Paris, the athletes competing over the next week will not always have such a generous pay packet to return home to.
That's because there is a huge disparity in medalist money awarded by some of the nations that pay their athletes the most highly.
Take Hong Kong, which announced ahead of the Olympic Games this summer that gold medalists would return home to a HK$6 million prize (approximately $770,000).
Paralympic athletes, by comparison, will receive HK $1.5M ($192,369) for taking home a gold—around a quarter of what their peers in the Olympics will receive.
A silver Paralympic medalist will take home HK $750,000 ($96,184) while a bronze medalist will receive HK $375,000 ($48,096).
In the Olympics, held a matter of weeks prior, silver and bronze medalists stood to earn significantly more—HK $3 million ($384,773) and HK $1.5 million ($192,369) respectively.
That being said, the nation is moving towards parity between prize monies awarded. The Olympic athletes, for example, saw a 20% boost to their winnings compared to the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 while Paralympic athletes have seen their prize money double.
The story is similar in Singapore, where Paralympic gold medalists will win a bonus of SGD $500,000 ($382,000). By comparison, Olympic gold medalists were offered a SGC $1m incentive ($765,184).
The Olympic committees of both Singapore and Hong Kong were contacted by Fortune for comment.
Moving toward parity
Other nations have made a concerted effort to pay their Paralympic and Olympic athletes equally.
Canada, for example, announced earlier this year that through a new Paralympic Performance Recognition program, athletes will receive CAD $20,000 ($14,825) for winning a gold medal, $15,000 ($11,118) for a silver medal, and $10,000 ($7,412) for bronze—the same as their Olympic counterparts.
Host nation France has also pumped an additional 250% in funding into Paralympic athletes and their teams between 2017 and 2023, and will reward medalists equally across the games: Gold medal winners received €80,000 ($88,536)—up from €65,000 ($71,936) in Tokyo—while silver medal winners received €40,000 ($44,268)—up from €25,000 ($27,667 in Tokyo)—and bronze medal winners got €20,000 ($22,134)—up from €15,000 ($16,600) in Tokyo.
In addition, for each medal obtained, the technical coaching staff shared 100% of the sum awarded for the medal.
Equality between non-disabled and Paralympic athletes been standard practice in some nations for years. In Malaysia, for example, athletes have received the same rewards since 2016 and in Australia this has been the case since 2021.
Other nations don't offer any cash prizes for medalists. In Great Britain, for example, there are no rewards for bringing home a gold, silver, or bronze—though sponsorship from private companies does increase if an individual emerges as a champion.
That being said, international sporting federations like World Athletics can still award their own prize money to Olympic medalists.
In April 2024 the body said sports stars who win a gold in the 48 track and field events would take home $50,000—a move criticized by Paralympic professionals.
Wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft has now won eight gold medals for her home nation of Great Britain, and told Sky News yesterday: "I'm really lucky, this Games I have some incredible sponsors behind me who are giving me medal bonuses, it's the first time ever that I'll have sponsor medal bonuses, so it's a massive step forward.
"It's not thousands but it's money. But yeah, it's tough seeing the Olympic guys get the money from World Athletics and then we can't replicate, it's frustrating."
The 32-year-old talent added: "That [$50,000 bonus] would really pay for my wedding quite well. Ultimately, I do this because I love it. We want parity and that's what we push for every time."
