LeBron James will be the first self-made billionaire to compete in the Summer Olympics, but who else stands on the earnings podium in basketball, tennis, golf and other sports?
While the Paris Olympics are sure to produce a new set of heroes, the 2024 Summer Games are not likely to mint many new millionaires. “Winning a medal helps with opportunities, but that also is a fairly short-lived thing, to be honest,” says Mikaela Shiffrin, a decorated alpine skier who won her first Winter Olympics gold in 2014. “The world moves on fairly quickly, so if you don’t continue to show success or value in the marketplace, then that excitement from the medal disappears.”
Even in popular Olympic sports like gymnastics, swimming or track and field, there is little hope for big paydays directly through competition. While many countries pay bonuses to medal winners—in the United States, it’s $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, $15,000 for bronze—a lack of major professional leagues and four years between Olympics means that athletes have to be smart about capitalizing on their newfound fame.
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Simone Biles, a rare returning Olympic champion who has crossed over into mainstream stardom, earned less than $100,000 directly from gymnastics in 2023, but away from the sport, she took home $7 million from endorsements, according to Forbes estimates. Badminton player P.V. Sindhu, a marketing star in her native India, had identical earnings splits, according to Forbes estimates. But endorsement earners of that caliber are rare outside major professional leagues.
If Forbes were ranking this summer’s highest-paid Olympians without breaking it down by sport, the list would be dominated by NBA players, professional golfers and tennis stars—athletes Forbes tracks throughout the year with large playing contracts or prize money winnings and millions of dollars in brand endorsements and business ventures off the field.
Here are the top three highest-earners across six of the most lucrative sports at the Paris Olympics.
NBA players are the highest-paid group of athletes in Paris by a wide margin, with Team USA alone containing seven of the 50 highest-paid athletes in the world across all sports (eight, before Kawhi Leonard bowed out with an injury). Still, there are 35 active NBA players across the other teams in the competition, and Canada’s 10 NBA players, for example, make an average on-court salary of $16.2 million. As a category, basketball players are the most consistent earners off the court, and all but LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo make more money from their NBA salaries than from endorsements. James also has the distinction of being the only billionaire to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Among female athletes, tennis players reign supreme in terms of earnings. Poland’s Iga Świątek, a five-time Grand Slam champion and the world’s No. 1 singles player at just 23 years old, already ranks ninth in the all-time WTA prize money rankings and has endorsements that include Rolex, Porsche, Visa and On shoes and apparel. Since winning her first Grand Slam at last year’s U.S. Open, world No. 2 Coco Gauff has added sponsorships from Ray-Ban and hair care brand Carol’s Daughter to an already robust portfolio. And 26-year-old Naomi Osaka, who will represent Japan at the Games, is hoping to reestablish her game on the court and reclaim her crown as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, a title she held for three straight years from 2020 to 2022.
In this month’s Wimbledon final, 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz dominated 37-year-old Novak Djokovic for what felt like a long-awaited passing of the torch in tennis. The young Spaniard also won last month’s French Open title on the same courts where the Olympic tennis competition will be held. Considering the Grand Slam bonuses in his Nike deal and with the addition of Louis Vuitton to his sponsorship portfolio in early 2024, Alcaraz could also become the highest-paid tennis player in the world this year.
Nelly Korda has dominated the LPGA Tour this season, earning more than $3 million in prize money so far in 2024 and at one point winning five consecutive tournaments. The 25-year-old American was already golf’s top pitchwoman, with sponsors including Delta Air Lines, Goldman Sachs and T-Mobile. Both Brooke Henderson and Jin Young Ko are marketing stars in their home countries as well, each pulling in an estimated $3.5 million off the course.
Jon Rahm had the highest-earning year of any golfer Forbes has ever recorded, thanks to his defection to the LIV Golf tour that came with an estimated $175 million upfront payment from the Saudis, who own the breakaway golf tour. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy—the No. 1 and No. 2 golfers in the world—have remained loyal to the PGA Tour, and have each benefited from a bump in prize money in response to the LIV emergence.
Notably absent from the USWNT roster in Paris are longtime stalwarts Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, the two highest earners from last year’s Women’s World Cup. However, several players on Team USA now earn more than $1 million as salaries and endorsement opportunities have increased in recent years. The top spot is now reserved for La Reina, the queen of Spanish soccer in two-time Ballon d’Or Féminin winner Alexis Putellas, the first Spanish woman to win any world player of the year trophy. She has signed up more than 10 long-term endorsement deals.
METHODOLOGY
The earnings published here are pulled from lists Forbes compiles throughout the year, and therefore have different reporting windows. The men’s basketball category comes from the Highest-Paid Athletes list, which tracked the 12-month window from May 2023 to May 2024. The women’s tennis and women’s golf categories are drawn from the Highest-Paid Female Athletes list, tracking calendar year 2023. The men’s tennis category is from our Highest-Paid Tennis Players list, published before the U.S. Open, and includes all earnings from September 2022 to September 2023. Men’s golf comes from our Highest-Paid Golfers list, tracking June 2023 to June 2024. And women’s soccer is based on our Highest-Paid Players At The Women’s World Cup, with a window of July 2022 to July 2023.
All of these lists are compiled through dozens of conversations with industry insiders, plus news reports and salary databases. On-field earnings include prize money, salaries and sport-related bonuses. Off-field earnings figures are an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees and memorabilia and licensing income, as well as cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest. Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees.
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