Poll: Should Olympians Pay $9,000 Tax on Their Gold Medals?

Fans’ adoration, inimitable sense of accomplishment, national glory… and thousands of dollars in taxes? All of these come with winning an Olympic medal for Team USA.

A Yahoo! Sports article revealed that Olympians are taxed on their prize money, just as game show and lottery winners are. Yet critics of this tax assert that surely the IRS can make an exception for the men and women representing our country at the world’s largest sporting event.

Many of these athletes train rigorously for years while also holding a full-time job because most sports don’t come with the sweet bonus of million-dollar endorsements. 

The following chart shows how much medalists win, and ultimately, what they pay in taxes.

The article also notes that military members, while deployed in a combat zone, do not have to pay taxes.