For most athletes it is a lifetime aspiration to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, with many devoting their whole life to a training regime which will help them achieve their goal.
The majority of the world’s top-performing athletes will admit it is the penultimate sporting achievement to win a gold medal for your country at the Olympics.
But a gold medal isn’t the only prize medal winning athletes are awarded if they are successful at the Games.
National Olympic committees and government sports ministries of different nations sometimes hand out additional prizes to athletes who bring home gold.
The US business magazine reached out to all 206 countries and territories participating with 33 confirming they will give out cash awards to their winning athletes.
Hong Kong pay their winning athletes the most, offering a remarkable $768,000 (£597,300) for their athletes who manage to claim gold at the games, whilst handing out an additional $380,000 (£295,500) to all their silver medallists.
Israel follow behind in second, however their cash award is significantly lower than Hong Kongs with $275,000 (£213,900) being handed out for gold, $192,000 (£149,000) for silver and $137,000 (£106,000) for bronze.
Other countries who pay their athletes more than $100,000 in bonuses for gold medals include:
Serbia – $218,000 (£169,900)
Malaysia – $214,000 (£166,800)
Italy – $196,000 (£152,800)
Lithuania – $182,000 (£141,900)
Moldova – $171,000 (£133,300)
Latvia – $155,000 (£120,800)
Hungary – $154,000 (£120,000)
Bulgaria – $139,000 (£108,400)
Ukraine – $125,000 (£97,500)
Kosovo – $120,000 (£93,550)
Estonia – $109,000 (£85,000)
Czech Republic – $103,000 (£80,300)
Spain – $102,000 (£79,500)
Not every country hands out a cash prize, instead many of them opt for other prizes which include paintings and holiday vouchers.
Poland are one of the rare country’s who offer their winning athletes a cash prize as well as a more sentimental prize to commemorate the achievement.
Poland give their gold medallists $82,000 (£63,000) in award money and also gives their athletes a one of a kind painting commissioned by a ‘talented and respected’ polish artist, an investment-grade diamond, and a holiday voucher for two.
To commemorate Poland’s 100th anniversary in the Olympics, individual gold medallists will also receive a two-bedroom flat in Warsaw, whilst team gold medallists will receive a one-bedroom flat.
Athletes who win a medal of any colour for Serbia at the Olympics are eligible for a national pension that kicks in when they turn 40-years-old.
Malaysia and Bulgaria offer monthly allowances greater than $1,000 (£778) to gold medallists for life.
Where as New Zealand gives their medal winning athletes a yearly bonus, each year until the next games come around.
With gold medal athletes $40,000 (£31,100) annually.
Every Team USA athlete who wins gold in Paris will receive a $37,500 (£29,300) bonus for their winning efforts.
According to Forbes, Team GB does not award their athletes with any type of bonuses for winning a medal at the Olympics.
Instead opting to hand out grants to their athletes ahead of the games to maximise their chance of winning.
That being said, British Athletics, the governing body for track and field, does reportedly hand out bonuses to their athletes.
World Athletics, the international athletics federation also revealed back in April that they would pay Olympic gold medallists $50,000 (around £39,400) at the 2024 Paris games.
The athletics governing body said it was setting aside $2.4m (£1.89m) to pay the gold medallists across 48 events at Paris’ track and field programme.
