The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awards the top three athletes at an event with medals – gold, silver or bronze.
The top eight receive a diploma for their achievements.
The Olympics do not pay athletes for winning medals. This is because the IOC would end up only rewarding around 1000 athletes and teams across the Summer and Winter Olympics, with the majority of these medallists coming from well-funded National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
This means that prize money for Olympic medallists would only further existing inequalities between nations.
“It would downgrade the Olympic Games to an elitist event with competition amongst only ten per cent of all 206 NOCs,” the IOC executive board said.
Instead ‘Olympic Solidarity’ provides assistance to all NOCs for athlete development programmes, particularly those with the greatest need.
Their aim is to ensure that athletes from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to succeed on the Olympic stage through “essential funding”.
Athletes under this programme receive financial support through monthly grants which contribute to their training and qualification efforts – in their home countries or training centres around the world.
An IOC spokesperson said 447 athletes are benefiting from the support at the 2026 Winter Olympics, six of whom are Team GB athletes.
The IOC executive board said they support fair financial rewards for athletes, but it is ultimately a nation’s responsibility to support them.
“It is a question of principle, efficiency and fair distribution, who pays such prize money,” the IOC executive board said.
They added that athletes who take part in the Olympics are members of the team of their NOC.
“This results in a national responsibility to support them in their preparations prior to the Games and reward them after the Games, and such financial commitments have been given over many decades by NOCs, governments, private institutions, sponsors and others,” they added.
The IOC have a different responsibility, which is to enable as many athletes as possible from all 206 NOCs, Refugee Olympic Team and all Olympic sports to participate in qualification for the Olympic Games, and eventually make it to the Games themselves.
The IOC say that in order to mitigate inequalities, they distribute around £734m every Olympic cycle of four years through Olympic Solidarity and commercial contributions.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.
