It will seem like a paradox, but sometimes it is the spirit of De Coubertin prevails precisely in the most successful countries: the important thing is (also) to win, but not to earn money. And so, according to the ranking of medal awards published by Bloomberg, at the Winter Olympics that begin today in Sochi it will happen that the three most successful nations of the last edition (Vancouver 2010), namely Canada, Germany and the United States, will pay their athletes on the podium overall less than Russia and Kazakhstan combined. The first for obvious reasons, the second because it is still chasing the first gold, for which it is giving away more than anyone else: 250 dollars.
Or it can still happen that, despite the geography obviously reversed in favor of the Nordic countries, in third place behind Kazakhstan and Latvia (193 dollars for gold) we find Italy, which has little hope of a medal but will pay them very well: 140 euros for gold, 75 euros for silver, 50 euros for bronze. France itself will pay much more than the USA: 67 thousand dollars (50 thousand euros) against 25 thousand for victory, 27 thousand against 15 thousand for second place, 17 thousand against 10 thousand for third; while the organizing Russia, which officially pays "only" 113 dollars to the athletes who triumph in front of their home crowd, could actually - according to Bloomberg - triple the jackpot thanks to the generous intervention of some patrons.
The Austrians, on the other hand, are much more elegant, as they know all about medals: they are the third country, after Norway and the USA, to have exceeded the threshold of 200 podiums in the Winter Olympics (with 55 gold medals). The athletes, favorites in many disciplines especially alpine skiing, will be rewarded with a set of silver coins, the number of which varies according to the position reached, worth $21.600. But there are those who are even more Decoubertinian: the Norwegians themselves, absolute rulers of the five winter circles with 303 medals of which 107 gold (the only country in triple figures), the Swedish cousins, the British and the Croatians will compete exclusively for the glory. However, the Swedish Olympic Committee has - appropriately - kept underlining that it invests a lot in athletes even before they win: in fact, it spends 8 million euros a year for each of the participants, paying for coaches, studies for those who still do it, travel, etc. .
Finally, there are the Korean "ants". South Korea is on paper the tenth country that pays better than the 26 participants who won at least one medal in the previous edition: 62 dollars for gold, a figure lower than the 82 of neighboring China, although far less competitive in winter sports. But if they opt for the pension plan, they will earn even more than Kazakhs and Russians: by giving up the 62 immediately and opting for an annuity of 923 dollars a month, the threshold of 28 will be largely exceeded in just 250 years.
