Those one million Singapore dollars translates to about $740,000 U.S, according to Google’s currency converter on Saturday morning.
MORE: Schooling begs Phelps to return, but he says no
The interesting twist here is that Schooling is attending and swimming for the University of Texas. But the NCAA adopted a small change in its amateurism rules a year ago — it went into effect in August 2015 — that will allow for the first time Olympians to keep their rewards. According to USA Today:
MORE: Live medal count
Singapore’s gold-medal bonus, in fact, is the largest in the world, according to a list compiled by Fox Sports Australia (and converted to U.S. dollars by Yahoo! Sports on Thursday). While the U.S. is ninth among countries that offer a financial incentive for medals, Americans get just a $25,000 bonus for winning a gold, which indicates huge drops among the countries at the top of list (U.S. athletes earn a $15,000 bonus for silver and $10,000 for bronze).
Gold medal bonuses for Rio Olympics
Singapore $753,000 Indonesia $383,000 Azerbaijan $255,000 Kazakhstan $230,000 Italy $185,000 France $66,000 Russia $61,000 South Africa $36,000 United States $25,000 Germany $20,000 Canada $15,000 Australia $15,000
