Most athletes who participate in the Olympic Games just want to make ends meet, because they can only get meager subsidies and a small amount of sponsorship, and these funds are often not enough to pay for years of training, equipment, medical care and travel. However, the lucky few who succeed in getting on the Olympic podium are different, and they may get huge bonuses-as long as they come from these countries and regions listed below. The Beijing Winter Olympics, which opened last week, will award 327 medals to a total of 15 sports, and dozens of countries will award prizes to athletes who have won medals. Before the Winter Olympics, Forbes contacted the Olympic committees or government sports departments of 9 1 participating countries and regions, and confirmed that at least 32 countries and regions would provide cash prizes for medals, and only 4 countries interviewed did not intend to pay clear bonuses for athletes who won medals. Turkey is one of the most generous countries visited, and it is willing to pay about $380,000 in cash for an Olympic gold medal. China and Hongkong, which participated in the Olympic Games independently, also promised to provide the prize equivalent to 642,000 US dollars, but this was mostly theoretical, because neither delegation won any medals in the Winter Olympics.