Precious Medal

They're so pretty!!  [Photo Source]  
I heard on the radio that Olympic Athletes owe $9,000 if they win a gold medal.  It didn't make sense to me that you could work your whole life to win a medal and then when you finally earn said medal you have to pay for it.  Is the gold medal really worth that much? 

The 2012 Olympic medals are 3.3 inches wide, 0.2 inches thick and weigh between 14-15 ounces.  According to CBSNews.com the gold medal is just over 1% real gold, 92.5% silver and 6.16 % copper and is worth about $644.  In the silver medal the gold part is replaced with more copper and is worth about $330.  The bronze medal is 97% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin and is only worth about $4.70.  Obviously, the sentimental value and what they represent far outweighs their actual monetary value.  The taxes on the $5-$600 medal itself can't be all that much so where did a number like $9,000 come from?

Olympic athletes are compensated for winning medals.  The United States Olympic Committee pays $25,000 for a Gold medal, $15,000 for a Silver medal and $10,000 for a Bronze. This money can be even be accepted by amateur athletes without compromising their College eligibility.  And that's what they owe major taxes on.  Is there nothing sacred?  The government gets a cut of everything!  The IOC doesn't have have to pay them to make them want to win medals, but it's gotta be a nice bonus.  Especially for those athletes that don't do money maker sports like Basketball or Tennis.  This is their big chance to finally earn some money after years and years of sacrifice and expensive training costs.

If you are already rich like Michael Phelps or going to be rich like Gabby Douglas then you can probably afford to come up with the tax money that's owed.  If not, I say don't spend it all in one place.  The $25K might only be $16K after taxes which is kind of sad, but at least you'd have the money to pay up without the IRS coming after you.

6 comments

  1. Very interesting. I did not know this. I wish that olympian can be paid enough to pay taxes and still take home the 25k, 15k, and 10k. Such a shame.

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  2. I heard about this too...the governmennt always needs to be paid huh!! I just don't know if they give funds to the Olympians for training!! That would make sense in my mind to tax them at that point!

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    1. Yeah, if you win anything at all you have to pay taxes on it so I guess I'm not all that surprised. It's actually the IOC that pays them-not the government. The gov just has to get their cut!

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  3. I think it's sad the government has to get a cut. When I heard that on the news, I thought it was so wrong.

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  4. I heard that one guys mom's house is in foreclosure. It's so sad that they are top performers in the world, and can still be struggling!

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  5. I never understood that.
    I think it's pretty crappy the govt. gets a cut.

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