Every two to four years, I have the same question pop into my head. How much is an Olympic gold medal actually worth?

As with nearly all of life’s random queries, Google answers the call, as if waiting for a personal finance blogger to come along and repurpose existing content. In the sport of paraphrasing, bordering on plagiarizing, Impersonal Finances is always in medal contention.  

The value of an Olympic gold medal

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I was surprised to learn just how little of the actual medal is made of the metal it represents, particularly in the case of the gold. As a result, the medals don’t hold nearly as much intrinsic value as you might otherwise assume.

In fact, the gold and silver medals are pretty much exactly the same, but for a small layer of gold (about six grams) to cover the silver base. What you see is what you get from silver, but the bronze is basically a prize you might receive for participating in a youth soccer tournament. You can see the specific makeup of each medal on the chart below, which comes direct from the Olympics website (where you can view this year’s medal designs for yourself). Interestingly enough, the gold medals used to consist entirely of gold from 1904 to 1912. No más.

Many athletes say you simply can’t put a price on winning a medal. But, in fact, you can. In different several ways. Let’s start with the raw materials.

JR Thorpe at Bustle recently dove into this exact topic and did the math for us.

If you (gasp!) melted them down, the precious metals in Olympic medals would command a wide range of prices. Six grams of gold in 2021 is worth around $380, according to Bloomberg, while 550 grams of silver is around $450, so a gold medal rings in at around $830, as far as the value of the pure metal goes. A bronze medal weighing 450g is a little less than a pound of red brass, which is worth between $2 and $2.50 in scrap. (Womp, womp.)

To clean that up a bit, the prized podium possessions have the following material values:

• Gold: $830
• Silver: $450
• Bronze: $2.50

The secondary market for your Olympic achievement

As we’ve seen with the short-lived NFT boom, physical worth is not always equivalent to market value. In the case of Olympic medals, you’re better off hitting Ebay than the scrap yard to flip your new medallion. Many collectors see value in the uniqueness and sentimentality associated with Olympic excellence.

The collector’s market is prone to various whims, but a medal from a notable event, such as a gold from the 1980 U.S. hockey team, can net you a quarter of a million dollars. Most medals, though, will fetch between $20,000 to $50,000. Still, not a bad flip for a couple hundred bucks worth of scrap.

Don’t forget prize money, endorsements and… taxes

Outside of the minimal value of your medal and the prospect of selling it, there is some cold hard cash involved in a trip to the medal stand. To the surprise of nobody, the notoriously sketchy International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not provide financial rewards for the Herculean feats off which they profit. Instead, individual countries bear the burden, which means these payouts vary quite a bit. In the United States, the prize money is as follows:

• Gold: $37,500
• Silver: $22,500
• Bronze: $15,000

In the most American twist imaginable, recipients of this prize money have been taxed as regular income. Which means elite amateur athletes in such profitable sports as Badminton, Canoe Slalom or Handball could expect to be rewarded for their gold medal achievements with five-figure tax bills. Even the the medals themselves were taxed! That is until 2016, thanks to a bill prohibiting the IRS from taxing Olympians for their achievements.

This newly-signed bill carries one exemption. It does not apply to athletes making over $1 million per year. Which brings us to another revenue stream: endorsements. While most archers and marathon swimmers will not hear from Wheaties regardless of their Olympic outcomes, the cream of the crop can make tens of millions of dollars on endorsement deals. A Simone Biles or Michael Phelps can see their marketability and earnings potential skyrocket with strong performances for the Red, White & Blue.

But again, the big money marketing deals are few and far between, and vary by nation. For athletes in Kazakhstan, a $250,000 gold medal payout will likely have to suffice.

How much are Olympic medals worth? It depends.

So how much is winning an Olympic gold medal really worth? It all depends on how you ask the question. The medals themselves? Not much, unless a resale buyer tells you otherwise. The payouts? Not bad, but probably not life changing. The achievement itself? Priceless, if you’re into that sort of thing.

For a lifetime of training—not counting the innumerable physical, emotional and financial tolls involved along the way—the cost-benefit analysis is generally not in your favor.

Which is the one and only reason a fiscally responsible individual like myself chose never to become an Olympian.