You always picture Olympic athletes driving themselves as hard as humanly possible for the love of the sport and the pride of winning.
Maybe some are, but it turns out that gold medals are worth more than their weight in real gold, according to this article in RT.
The Russians are reportedly paying their top athletes 100,00 euros for gold, 60,000 for silver and 40,000 for bronze. Plus a car from the Fund for the Support of Olympians of Russia. There are also reported to be houses and land for some local heroes.
Canada on the other hand is paying a mere $25,000C for gold with $15,000 and $10,000 for silver and bronze respectively.
The US is reportedly paying about the same as the Canadians, but American sporting officials are planning to drastically increase the amount of prize money by London 2012.
