A gold medal is worth $100K 金牌的价值

Pablo Torre from Sports Illustrated breaks down how Olympic athletes bring home the bank along with glory.

So you’re an Olympic athlete. You train practically your whole life, cause you get one chance maybe two to represent your country and compete. But how exactly do you make a paycheck at the same time? Let’s bring in Pablo Torre from Sports Illustrated. How exactly do they compete, spend all of their time training but still make money?

Well, you know. Once you get that elusive gold medal, there is a payoff and it’s not just in the tangible thing you hold in your hand. You make about a hundred thousand dollars regardless of any sport of individual event, in speaking engagements and advertising, in sponsorships that will last you about through the year. But after that it's sort of up in the air once again.

Michael Phelps, he seems to be transcending the Olympics one year rule. He’s gonna be having sponsors for how long? 10 years?

You know, for a very long time. I’m not gonna put a number on that ,but the guy will be with us as one of those historic all time great athletes regardless of the event he swam, or even ran, or anything, he is up there with the Tiger Woodses at this point right now. So，you know he will be there for a very long time and he will be raking in money . He’s making about 5million dollars right now. After he gets the 8 gold medal, fingers crossed, you know, he will be doing even better than that.

If, something else said that's interesting is, if you wanna be an Olympic athlete, I’m pretty sure neither of us are quite there yet.

Women’s team handball shooting for…

I think you have a shot .I think, if back in high school I’m pretty good at Ping-Pong. And actually I raced one of our co-workers /a/ hundred yard dash, but two weeks ago, /that/ I’m still exhausted.

I’m sure that’s roughly comparable to what Olympic athletes do.

It’s pretty much exactly the same.

But for the people that are actually trying to play in the Olympics to compete, they really do give up everything, their risks are associated with this. But they’re not making money until they win so what’s their life like when you’re at home practicing waking up everyday not knowing if you’re gonna get a sponsorship.

Yeah, it’s a true labor of love. And you’re not doing it for the money. And if you are, you’re sort of a bit are too big for your bridges, I think, unless you are character like Michael Phelps who started in the Olympics at the age of 15. You don’t know whether the money is gonna come in. You’re doing it because you love the sport. And often times, even if you get that hundred thousand dollars, no one’s gonna recognize you beyond that, that niche community that you have in your own events. So you really doing it with little lights turned down and with no one else watching you in order to actually succeed.

So, really it’s a risk. It’s all like a start-up company. Think about it.

It is. You know, you are a young guy putting in time when no one else really has faith in you often. The fact that is you need to do it when the lights are turned down and no one else is watching you. You need to wear with all to really, you know, encourage yourself and not doing it for money but for the love of the game.

Pablo Torre, he is from Sports Illustrated. My name is Lan Orefice, /and/ I’m from CNNMoney.com. Thanks for being with us.

体育画报Sports Illustrated 的记者Pablo Torre 称，奥运会运动员带回国的不只是荣耀，还有“银行”。

假设你是一个奥运会运动员。你一辈子都在勤奋的训练，因为你有些许机会代表你的祖国去参加比赛。但是同时，你那什么来开支票呢？我们请来了来自体育画报Sports Illustrated的Pablo Torre 。

“运动员所有时间都花在比赛和训练的同时是怎样赚钱的呢？”

“你知道，一旦你获得至高无上的金牌，会有很丰厚的回报，而不只是你手里所触摸到的那个东西。在接下去的一年里，即使你不参加任何形式的比赛，仅仅是参加演讲，拍广告，还有赞助商给的费用，你就可以赚几十万美元。但是以后，你的生计似乎又悬而未决了。”

但是菲尔普斯似乎会超越奥运会这个所谓的一年的规律。他在多长的时间里都会有赞助商？10年？

你知道，肯定会是非常长的时间。我不想设定一个具体的数字。但是，那个小伙子是有史以来最伟大的运动员，即使他以后不参加游泳比赛，或赛跑，或者其他任何比赛，他都会和我们在一起。他现在拥有Tiger Woodses 一样的地位。所以，你知道，将会有很长一段时间他会和我们在一起，而且他会赚很多钱。他现在已经赚了大约500万美圆。而他获得了8枚金牌之后，上帝呀！你知道，他会赚的更多！

另外一件可以称之为有趣的事情是，如果你要成员为一个奥林匹克运动员，我很肯定我们中没有一个现在够得了格。

女子手球队射门………………

我认为你射中了一次。我想，如果重回高中，我非常擅长乒乓球。事实上，两个星期之前，我还在100米的比赛中赢了我的同事，但是直到现在我仍然筋疲力尽。

我确定那绝对可以和奥运会运动员们所做的训练相提并论。

那是完全相同的。

但是对于那些真正想要参加奥运会比赛的人来说，他们真的放弃了一切，风险也相伴而生。但是直到他们赢得了比赛他们才能赚到钱，所以，他们的生活就像你每天早上醒来，不知道你会不会获得资助一样。

是的，或许这是你真心喜欢做的事情。你做这些不是为了钱。否则，你也太冒险了，除非你有像菲尔普斯那样的资质，可以从15岁开始就参加奥运会。你不知道什么时候会赚钱。你参加比赛是因为你真心喜爱这项运动。即使你赚了几十万美圆，在日常生活中，除了你参加比赛的那个小圈子，没人认识你。所以，如果为了真正赢得比赛，你关掉灯光，没有任何观众观看你的比赛，你才是真心的喜欢这项运动。

所以，这确实是一个风险。这就像一个刚刚起步的公司。你可以仔细考虑一下。

是的。你知道，你是一个即使没人为你衷心的疯狂的时候也要花费时间练习的年轻人。事实是，当灯光关掉和没人关注你的时候，你仍然需要训练。你需要这样做来鼓励你自己，不是为了钱，而是因为真心爱这项比赛。