LIST: LeBron James part of top 20 highest paid athletes at 2024 Olympics

The Olympic Games, initially used as a showcase for amateur athletes, has recently seen an infiltration of modern-day professionals across different sports, which has also had a drastic effect on the pay packages of individuals, best show-cased this year in Paris.

Whilst the excitement is always on the track, a look at the top 20 earners at the Olympics in 2024 shows a different picture.

A list compiled by Sportico shows the crazy figures some athletes earned in the 12 months leading up to 30 June 2024, which is a combination of salaries, bonuses, prize money, and endorsements.

Dominating the list are NBA players and golf players, who took home crazy salaries. No track athlete or female made the list.

Spain golfer Jon Rahm is the top earner at $210 million (KSh27,090,000,000), 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 pay check was fuelled by a nine-figure bonus from LIV Golf, funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF.

In second place is basketball star LeBron James, who took home $127.7 million (Ksh16,473,300,000), and leads a group of fellow NBA players including Golden State’s Stephen Curry ($101.9M), Giannis Antetokounmpo ($100.8M) and Kevin Durant ($89.7M) in the top five.

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A significant figure in the records is that LeBron’s huge bulk of his earnings comes from his $80M pay in endorsements, which is the biggest on the list.

It is further reported that 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.

On the bottom of the list is notably upcoming basketball star Shai Gilgeous Alexander, whose earnings are expected to take a huge leap after signing an extension with shoe apparel brand Converse.

A pair of tennis players round out the top 20, with Spanish sensation 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.

And so while most of the athletes convene in Paris till Sunday 11 August, there is a curve that reflects playing professional sports in the top leagues in the world has an exponential benefit to track and field.