The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has announced that starting at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, monetary rewards for U.S. Olympic medalists will increase by 50 percent.
At the Rio Olympics, the USOC’s Operation Gold program gave a cash prize of $25,000 to each U.S. gold medalist. Athletes who won silver received $15,000 per medal, and bronze medalists received $10,000.
In PyeongChang, the amount per medal will go up to $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.
Paralympic medalists will receive $7,500 for gold, $5,250 for silver and $3,750 for bronze from the USOC.
Operation Gold also includes payments for world championship medals in non-Olympic years. Those prizes will increase by 25 percent.
The athletes will also be able to keep more of their prize money, as President Barack Obama signed a bill into law in October that exempted Olympic athletes from a so-called “victory tax.” Under the old law, the payments were considered earned income and were subject to tax by the IRS.
The bill does allow taxes on athletes who earn more than $1 million dollars a year.
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