The first edition of the modern era Olympics took place in 1896 as a showcase for amateur athletes with professionals barred from the Games for nearly a century. No more.
The Paris Olympics, which run from July 24 until Aug. 11, will feature 20 athletes who each earned more than $35 million in the 12 months ending June 30. They collectively made $1.35 billion from salaries, bonuses, prize money and endorsements. Yes, many Olympians juggle full- or part-time jobs while training at an elite level to make ends meet, but the Olympics featuring only amateurs is a relic.
Spain’s Jon Rahm is the top earner at $210 million and leads a quintet of golfers in the top 20 who will tee it up at Golf National southwest of Paris. Rahm’s sky-high paycheck was fueled by a nine-figure bonus when he swapped sides in golf’s Cold War in December and joined LIV Golf, funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF.
Reports put Rahm’s signing bonus between $300 million to $600 million, but multiple people familiar with LIV contracts pegged the deal at the lower number. They also estimated half was paid up front with additional payments made annually during the life of the contract.
Rahm earned a further $22 million from prize money and his $9 million bonus in 2023 from the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program. His sponsors generated an additional $20 million.
Golf was re-introduced to the Summer Olympics in 2016 after a 112-year hiatus, while tennis was paused as an Olympic sport after 1924 but came back in 1988, featuring pros from the ATP and WTA Tours. Yet, the biggest shift away from the amateur narrative of the Olympics occurred in 1992 when NBA players became eligible—previously, pros in leagues aside from the NBA had participated in the Games. The Dream Team—led by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley—descended on Barcelona and cruised to Olympic gold, paving the way for future generations of NBA players to participate in the Olympics and grow their brands.
The 20 top-earning Olympians features 13 NBA players, including the four highest-paid athletes after Rahm with LeBron James ($127.7 million), Stephen Curry ($101.9 million), Giannis Antetokounmpo ($100.8 million) and Kevin Durant ($89.7 million). Each of these stars earned at least $45 million last season from their NBA contract and more than $40 million from income off the court.
James is participating in his fourth Olympics and will be the U.S. flag bearer, alongside Coco Gauff. The four-time NBA MVP earns more from endorsements than any other athlete on the planet, thanks to a deep roster of sponsors, including Nike, Beats, AT&T, DraftKings, Taco Bell, Crypto.com and more.
Several basketball Olympians are headed for significant earnings bumps in the next 12 months. Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton signed maximum deals with their respective NBA teams that start at $42.2 million for the 2024-25 season—Edwards made $13.5 million and Haliburton $5.8 million last season. Edwards also just signed an extension with Adidas worth more than $10 million a year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the NBA's most consistent volume scorers, recently reached his own eight-figure-a-year sneaker deal extension with Converse, as well as a multimillion-dollar Panini agreement for autographs and memorabilia that will catapult his off-court earnings.
A pair of tennis players round out the top 20 with Carlos Alcaraz ($45 million) and Novak Djokovic ($38.7 million). The two just faced off in the Wimbledon final, with Alcaraz beating Djokovic in straight sets, and are the top two seeds in the Olympic tournament at Roland Garros after Italy’s Jannik Sinner withdrew from the tournament with tonsillitis. The trio are the highest-paid players in the sport.
Gauff is the highest-paid female Olympian at $25.6 million, but the tennis ace falls outside the top 20 overall. Athletes from nine countries cracked the top 20, including Joel Embiid, who grew up in Cameroon and represents the U.S. in basketball. There are nine Americans and a pair of athletes each from Canada, Spain and Serbia. Salaries and prize money represented $900 million of the $1.35 billion in total earnings, while endorsements make up $450 million.
The earnings reflect those between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, and include prize money and all bonuses (signing, incentive, playoff and All-Star). Off-court and off-course earnings include endorsements, appearance fees, royalties and course design fees. Estimates were determined through conversations with people familiar with these deals. The figures are all before taxes and any agent fees.
(This story has been updated in the fourth-to-last paragraph to add clarity about the upcoming earnings of several members of Team USA's men's basketball team.)
