I Just Learned How Much Olympic Athletes Get For Winning Medals, And Wow, It’s Not What I Expected

Posted on 05/08/2024 by Boris Clair

The Olympic games aren’t all about the medals, except that they kind of are.

The discs of national glory are so valuable that athletes have sold, or donated, theirs for fortunes; collectors can cough up hundreds of thousands, or even a million plus, on the objects.

But how much do the athletes themselves get paid for placing themselves on the podium?

We’ve already written at HuffPost UK about how little Oscars hosts earn from the gig ― what about Olympic medallists?

It truly depends

Different countries offer different rates of pay for different medals, CNBC reports. And while some governments ― like that of Singapore ― will pay the medallist directly, others do it through different organisations.

Britain is a good example; Team GB offers athletes grants before they reach the games, while Sky says British Athletics “does reportedly pay out medal bonuses independent of the government.”

Though every decorated sportsperson will leave the 2024 Olympic Village with “a stuffed toy of the Olympics mascot and a ‘mysterious’ box containing the official event poster,” CNBC shared that a gold medallist for the US will earn £29,793 ($38,000).

That’s measly compared to Hong Kong’s £602,146 ($768,000) for gold, but decadent in comparison to Australia’s £10,192 (13,000).
What are the going rates for different countries?

We’ve converted the dollar sum into pounds, and the conversion rate will change. With that consideration, in order of payouts, they reportedly are (per CNBC):

Hong Kong

— Gold: £601,812 ($768,000)
— Silver: £300,906 ($384,000)
— Bronze: £150,453 ($192,000)

Singapore

— Gold: £583,789 ($745,000)
— Silver: £292,286 ($373,000)
— Bronze: £145,751 ($186,000)

Indonesia

— Gold: £235,083 ($300,000)
— Silver: £117,541 ($150,000)
— Bronze: £47,016 ($60,000)

Israel

— Gold: £212,358 ($271,000)
— Silver: £169,259 ($216,000)
— Bronze: £105,787 ($135,000)

Republic of Kazakhstan

— Gold: £195,902 ($250,000)
— Silver: £117541 ($150,000)
— Bronze: £58,770 ($75,000)

Malaysia

— Gold: £169,259 ($216,000)
— Silver: £50,934 ($65,000)
— Bronze: £17,239 ($22,000)

Spain

— Gold: £79,928 ($102,000)
— Silver: £40,747 ($52,000)
— Bronze: £25,859 ($33,000)

France

— Gold: £68,174 ($87,000)
— Silver: £33,695 ($43,000)
— Bronze: £17,239 ($22,000)

South Korea

— Gold: £35,262 ($45,000)
— Silver: £19,590 ($25,000)
— Bronze: £14,104 ($18,000)

United States

— Gold: £29,777 ($38,000)
— Silver: £18,023 ($23,000)
— Bronze: £11,754 ($15,000)

Japan

— Gold: £25,075 ($32,000)
— Silver: £10,186 ($13,000)
— Bronze: £4,701 ($6,000)

Poland

— Gold: £19,590 ($25,000)
— Silver: £14,888 ($19,000)
— Bronze: £10,970 ($14,000)

Germany

— Gold: £17,239 ($22,000)
— Silver: £12,537 ($16,000)
— Bronze: £8,619 ($11,000)

Australia

— Gold: £10,186 ($13,000)
— Silver: £7,836 ($10,000)
— Bronze: £5,485 ($7,000)

So how do athletes make money?

Not every Olympic athlete will place in the top three, and even if they did, most Olympians only go to the games once.

So how else do they make money?

Well according to The Telegraph, income sources range from plain ol’ day jobs to OnlyFans accounts and social media money.

Other athletes may secure brand deals through their work or get government or charitable grants.

This year, musician Flava Flav began supporting the US women’s Olympic water polo team after learning many of them were working ” one, two and three jobs.”

58% of Olympic athletes did not consider themselves financially stable when asked at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Forbes reports.

This Olympic Athlete Schooled A TikTok User Who Commented On Her BMI, And It’s Deliciously Satisfying

Posted on 30/07/2024 by Boris Clair

In a recent TikTok, US rugby player Ilona Maher shared a comment she’d gotten on a previous video.

It read, “I bet that person has a 30% BMI” (it seems she was referencing a BMI of 30, which is the point at which a person is officially classed as “obese” by the index).

“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to roast me, but this is actually a fact,” Ilona began her video in response to the remark.

“I do have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be even more exact. I’ve been considered ‘overweight’ my whole life,” the professional athlete explained.

The rugby player broke down how BMI works

After sharing that she had been classed as “overweight” as the result of a physical she’d completed in high school, the rugby star said, “I was so embarrassed.”

Since then, though, things have changed.

“I chatted with my dietician, because I go off of, you know, facts,” she explained, “and we talked about BMI. And we talked about how it really isn’t helpful for athletes,” she said.

That’s because muscle is denser than fat, meaning a square inch of muscle will be heavier than a square inch of fat; you can have a very low body fat percentage (the thing doctors tend to worry about) while maintaining a high weight, especially as a sportsperson.

“BMI doesn’t tell you much. It just tells you your height and weight and what that equals,” Ilona shared. “I’m 5′10″, 200 pounds ― and I have about, and this is an estimate, but about 170 pounds of lean muscle,” she added.

That puts her body fat percentage at 15% (that’s at the lower limit of the Royal College of Nursing’s recommended body fat percentage for women aged 20-40, which is 15% to 31%).

Maher added, “BMI doesn’t really tell you what I can do… So, I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered ‘overweight.’ But alas, I’m going to the Olympics, and you’re not.”

BMI has long had its faults

Not only is BMI not very useful for athletes, but it wasn’t even devised to measure people’s health.

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet came up with it in the 1830s as a part of his measure of the “average” man, which he saw as aspirational. (“Average” to Quetelet was, of course, exclusively Western European men.)

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, have published an article in the journal Science which shared that BMI “is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences.”

Nick Trefethen, Professor of Numerical Analysis at Oxford University’s Mathematical Institute, also told The Economist in a letter that the calculations of the index are off.

“We live in a three-dimensional world, yet the BMI is defined as weight divided by
height squared. It was invented in the 1840s, before calculators, when a formula had to be very simple to be usable.”

“As a consequence of this ill-founded definition, millions of short people think they are thinner than they are, and millions of tall people think they are fatter,” he wrote.

Take THAT, Wii Fit circa 2008…

Here’s How People Are Reacting To The Wild Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Posted on 27/07/2024 by Boris Clair

The Paris Olympics opening ceremony had it all, and people are… processing.

The ceremony, billed as one of the most ambitious ever, featured a parade of boats along the Seine, with a series of fun and quirky shows along the banks as well as some prerecorded segments. It replaced the typical format of a parade of nations inside a stadium.

Athletes, some wearing ponchos over their uniforms, kept their spirits high despite rainy weather, waving from their boats.

Lady Gaga stunned with a very va-va-voom rendition of Zizi Jeanmaire’s Mon Truc En Plumes on a set of stairs by the river, surrounded by enormous plumes of pink feathers.

In another segment, headless women dressed in red — representing the ill-fated queen of France, Marie Antoinette — appeared in the windows of a grand building amid bursts of fire and an energetic performance by heavy metal band Gojira. This was followed by opera music.

Elsewhere, dancers in pink, including a woman dressed as a croissant, partied in the streets.

There was also a catwalk showcasing out-there French designs, and at one point, a semi-naked blue man — French singer Philippe Katerine — sang as he lay on a plate of fruit and flowers on the runway. Also, Minions. And in one prerecorded bit, apparently the beginning of a ménage à trois?

Throughout the show, viewers were shown clips of a hooded figure carrying the Olympic torch, leaping and bounding across Parisian rooftops, in a nod to The Phantom of the Opera.

Towards the end of the night, a silver rider bearing the Olympic flag on a mechanical horse appeared to gallop down the Seine, eventually delivering the flag to be hoisted at Place du Trocadero.

As the Olympic torch approached its final destination, the Eiffel tower beamed out a dazzling light show. After the cauldron was lit, Celine Dion brought the night to a magnificent end with an electrifying comeback performance perched on the Eiffel Tower.

As the ceremony played out, some viewers were delighted by the French-ness of it all. Others took issue with the boat parade format. Some simply had no idea what was happening.

“WHAT IS GOING ON,” one user wrote, sharing a clip of the Marie Antoinette moment.

“A beheaded Marie Antoinette is one of the wildest and craziest things ever at the Olympics,” said another.

“Impressed that the French planned their Olympic ceremony and decided ‘and then we’re gonna show off one of our main cultural exports, the ménage a trois!’ and then they did,” another commenter posted.

See some of the other reactions below.

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if you’re not watching the olympic opening ceremony the main torchbearer is a masked vigilante wearing keens and les miserables-style revolutionary rags who entered on a boat to the phantom of the opera theme and is now doing parkour around paris to techno. extremely french

— molly taft (@mollytaft) July 26, 2024

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if you’re not watching the olympic opening ceremony the main torchbearer is a masked vigilante wearing keens and les miserables-style revolutionary rags who entered on a boat to the phantom of the opera theme and is now doing parkour around paris to techno. extremely french

— molly taft (@mollytaft) July 26, 2024

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“Then Marie Antoinette’s head will segue us into a sequence celebrating the ménage a trois…”

— Matt Bevan (@MatthewBevan) July 27, 2024

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“Then Marie Antoinette’s head will segue us into a sequence celebrating the ménage a trois…”

— Matt Bevan (@MatthewBevan) July 27, 2024

Check out HuffPost’s live coverage of the opening ceremony highlights here.

Celine Dion Belts Out Truly Spectacular Performance On Eiffel Tower At Olympics

Posted on 27/07/2024 by Boris Clair

Celine Dion brought the Paris Olympics opening ceremony to a magnificent end with her first performance since announcing her diagnosis of a rare neurological disorder in 2022.

Dressed in a glittery silver gown, she delivered a stirring rendition of L’hymne à l’amour, co-written and famously performed by French singer Édith Piaf, on a platform partway up the lighted Eiffel Tower and beneath glowing Olympic rings. She was accompanied by a pianist.

Immediately after the performance, Kelly Clarkson, one of NBC’s commentators, choked up and teary, said, “I actually can’t talk.”

“People don’t know her story, what she’s been going through physically,” she added. “It’s just incredible what she’s overcome. And to have that moment — she’s a vocal athlete.”

Dion announced in 2022 she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a condition that has affected her ability to sing. She has since cut back significantly on public appearances.

She fuelled hype that she would perform at the opening ceremony when she was spotted in Paris this week.

Afterwards, the Canadian singer posted on social media saying she was honoured to have performed and “so full of joy to be back in one of my very favourite cities.”

“Most of all, I’m so happy to be celebrating these amazing athletes, with all their stories of sacrifice and determination, pain and perseverance,” she wrote. “All of you have been so focused on your dream, and whether or not you take home a medal, I hope that being here means that it has come true for you!”

It marked Dion’s second time performing at the Olympics. In 1996, she sang The Power of the Dream at the Summer Games in Atlanta, a clip of which the official Olympic social media accounts shared:

In an interview in June, the five-time Grammy winner said she had broken ribs as a result of the muscle spasms associated with stiff-person syndrome, which had made it difficult for her to sing.

She said at times it had felt like “somebody’s strangling you” when she tried to sing.

But she hit her high notes flawlessly in her comeback on Friday, earning high praise and drawing strong emotions from viewers, who hailed the performance as “beautiful” and “inspirational.”

Daniel Craig Reflects On Sharing The Screen With Queen Elizabeth For Iconic Olympics Sketch

Posted on 11/09/2022 by Boris Clair

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Daniel Craig has reflected on sharing the screen with Queen Elizabeth II during a comedy sketch as part of the 2012 Olympics.

To kick off the event’s Opening Ceremony that year, Daniel appeared in character as James Bond for a scene set at Buckingham Palace.

In the sketch, the late monarch briefly addressed 007 before the two were seen entering a helicopter, which flew over the stadium, ending with a stunt double of the Queen parachuting into the arena.

“What an incredible thing,” Daniel said of the sketch following the Queen’s death at the age of 96 earlier this week.

He told the BBC: “We will not see the likes of her ever again. To be alive during her reign is something else.

″[I feel] very saddened. I suppose good luck to Charles, really.”

Daniel Craig and the Queen pictured during their Olympics skit

Frank Cottrell-Boyce – who co-wrote the sketch, as well as a more recent one featuring the Queen and Paddington Bear – told Radio 4: “We went to the Palace asking for permission to represent her and to know what she was wearing on the day, and it was her amazing dresser who said ‘No, no, she wants to be in it.’ She was game and she was up for that.

“In fact on the day when we were filming, she asked Danny Boyle if she could have a line because there wasn’t a line in the script, probably because when I was typing the script I didn’t quite know how you would type the character of the Queen… What would you type?”

Earlier this year, Daniel told US talk show host Stephen Colbert about a “very funny” joke the Queen cracked at his expense, recalling: “We were having our photograph taken, and she just went, ‘Oh no, he’s the one that doesn’t smile’.”

Of her corgis, who also appeared in the scene, Daniel added: “I was rolling around on the floor with them most of the time. I mean, they’re just there. I think they have their own footmen. They’re very friendly.”

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You’re reading Move, the nudge we need to get active, however makes us happiest and healthiest.

A funny thing happens after a big sporting event takes over our televisions: fitness centres, gyms and sports clubs see a spike in new members.

It happened after the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when 850,000 more women signed up to play footie. Then again during and immediately after Wimbledon the same year, when the Lawn Tennis Association saw casual player court bookings jump by around 49%.

So imagine the impact of Team GB equalling the glory of London 2012 to record their joint highest ever Olympic medal tally in Tokyo this past fortnight with an amazing 22 golds, 21 silvers and 22 bronzes – adding up to 65 medals in all.

After the pandemic forced the cancellation of so many sporting fixtures and events in 2020, the bonanza of summer 2021 has been all the more inspiring. From multi-screening the Euros and Wimbledon, enjoying a whole new cricket tournament in The Hundred, and getting glued to the Olympics and the Paralympics yet to come, we’ve never been more ready to tune in, then train up.

Participation data has yet to be released for the year, but we’d put money on it being big. So, why does watching sport make us want to get sporty ourselves?

Team GB's athletes celebrate their triumphs on the track in Tokyo — Team GB’s athletes celebrate their triumphs on the track in Tokyo

“Watching sport makes us realise the power of community and triggers the sense of belonging that we all crave,” says sports psychologist Dr Josie Perry , whose audiobook, The 10 Pillars of Success, is out on August 15. “We watch people trying their absolute hardest, achieving great things and looking amazing and we want a piece of that too. We want to feel part of that world.”

The pull we feel watching elite athletes is so strong, it’s even felt by other sporting pros. Five-time Olympian Jo Pavey tells HuffPost UK she gets inspired to try other sports when she watches them on TV – even if they’re out of her own comfort zone of long-distance running. And what’s true for adults also applies to kids, says Pavey, who narrowly missed out on a spot in Tokyo.

“When England were playing football in the Euros it inspired us all to keep playing football matches in the garden. When Wimbledon is on, we’re more likely to have a go at tennis,” says the mother-of-two.

“I think it’s great for kids to see role models on the TV as it inspires them to have a go at different things. I also find it motivating to watch the determination of sports people competing in different events.”

Not only does a high profile tournament inspire many of us to try something new, it can also remind us of past sporting fun, adds Dr Perry. Watching a sport we’ve dabbled in ourselves, “helps us remember the pleasure we got from both doing it and from the feeling we had mastered aspects of it,” she says.

The summer Olympics, with 339 events and 33 different sports, offers the ultimate opportunity to reminisce – even if we’re simply laughing about how terrible we were at javelin in school and wondering if we’d do better now.

The Olympians understand this knock-on-effect. “That’s why we are all here, because sport has an amazing power to inspire people and hopefully this is going to be an amazing motivation for people,” said swimmer Adam Peaty after winning Team GB’s very first gold medal of the game.

They also understand that sport is about mind as well as body. Never has a games shone such a clear light on the link between physical and mental health – as US gymnast Simone Biles showed the world when she prioritised both.

This is why HuffPost UK has chosen this moment to relaunch our fitness section as Move – a renewed commitment to celebrating exercise in all its forms, putting accessibility front and centre. We aim to provide bags of ideas for getting active, however makes you happiest and healthiest – but we’ll also get real about motivation, addressing the barriers that stop so many of us from moving more.

Take participation after a major sporting event. We know people sign up in their thousands after watching sport on TV, but we also know that many people drop out soon afterwards.

A quarter of people have given up on certain sports because they didn’t think they would be good enough, according to research from Procter & Gamble. A further 16% of people have been put off a sport, because they didn’t believe they fit the stereotype of what people playing that sport are “supposed” to look like. For many, the pandemic and long stints indoors has only exacerbated such worries, particularly among those who’ve historically felt excluded from the fitness community, and not catered for in gyms and sports centres.

Research from the disability charity Scope for its new Make It Count drive – dubbed “a movement of movers” – found that nearly half (48%) of disabled people have become less active since the pandemic began. Four in 10 (40%) said they never do sport or physical activity, but 91% want to be more active.

So, how do we take inspiration and energy from a summer of sport such as this one and harness it once the media hubbub has died down? And how can we shake off the inner critic that tells us we’ll never be as good as the pros?

Hannah Cockroft is one of Team GB's great hopes at the Paralympics in Tokyo. — Hannah Cockroft is one of Team GB’s great hopes at the Paralympics in Tokyo.

Well, we can start by stealing some motivation tactics from elite athletes, says Jeremy Snape, a former England cricketer-turned-sports psychologist, who hosts the podcast Inside the Mind of Champions.

“We have this myth that elite performers are going to wake up every morning with a zest for their painful training and are going to do that for eight or 10 years without a break, but that’s not true,” he tells HuffPost.

“A professional athlete, that’s their job, so while their motivation may ebb and flow through the various training cycles, their commitment remains the same.”

A professional athlete’s commitment – or end goal – may be winning a certain tournament or hitting a new world record. They’ll use a number of tactics to visualise not only what this might look like, but how this might feel, says Snape. They may imagine a social gathering where they’ll show family that trophy, or put an inspirational image as their phone screen saver that makes them feel good about their ambition.

Team GB's Mixed Relay Triathlon team show off their gold medals — Team GB’s Mixed Relay Triathlon team show off their gold medals

For you, the commitment may be getting fitter so you don’t get so tired out during your work week or so you can play with your kids without getting out of breath. Snape recommends thinking about how great this will feel, rather than focusing on something static – such as weight loss – as the goal.

When your motivation is high, such as after watching sport on TV, he suggests putting “architecture” in place for when it inevitably dips. This might be signing up to a class, or laying out your gym kit with your phone alarm in the shoe.

“The chances are, when we wake up, we’ll think the duvet is going to beat us, but if your alarm is going to ring in your gym shoes and it’s all laid out, you’ve 90% more chance that you’re going to follow through,” he says. “The hardest part of a run is getting out of the front door.”

Pavey recommends listening to music before and and during a workout to help “get you in the groove,” exercising with friends, and planning what you’ll do after a workout. “But the main thing is to enjoy it,” she says. “If you’re experiencing a lack of motivation try varying your workouts or maybe take the time to exercise where there is beautiful scenery as this can be so uplifting.”

And if self-doubt starts to creep in, remember that any movement is positive movement – and you don’t need to look like an elite athlete to take part.

“What we’ve got to do when we look at Olympians is look at the characteristics we aspire to. Things like their personal discipline, the selflessness in teams, [their] wellbeing.”

“You’ve got to bear in mind that it’s those people’s professions and they’ve studied and sacrificed for 15 years to look like that, some of them started their training when they were five years old,” says Snape.

“In the same way you’d look at a doctor and say ‘wow that’s amazing,’ you’re not just going to turn up and be a doctor within two weeks of good intentions, because there’s a whole raft of training and skills that go behind it. I think what we’ve got to do when we look at Olympians is look at the characteristics that we aspire to – things like their personal discipline, the selflessness in teams, things like [their] wellbeing.”

Seeking inspiration closer to home can also help, says Dr Perry. “It might be the person at Parkrun who is like you but a bit faster or the guy at your football club who has worked incredibly hard on their fitness who inspires you,” she says.

“They give us what is known as ‘vicarious confidence,’ knowing they can do it helps us believe we can too. So look at friends and acquaintances – who is doing well and what element of that would you like to emulate?”

Above all, give yourself to permission to take things slowly and celebrate each win, whether that’s swimming a length for the first time, or feeling less out of breath as you walk to the end of the road.

“I think the pandemic has taught us that being outside and being active is incredibly liberating from a mental health perspective,” says Snape. “For both elite athletes and the average person, we should be not be judging ourselves on the outcome, but about our progress.”

Move celebrates exercise in all its forms, with accessible features encouraging you to add movement into your day – because it’s not just good for the body, but the mind, too. We get it: workouts can be a bit of a slog, but there are ways you can move more without dreading it. Whether you love hikes, bike rides, YouTube workouts or hula hoop routines, exercise should be something to enjoy.