London Olympics 2012: British gold medallists can cash in on new BOA marketing scheme Rates for athlete appearances are fixed, with a gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympics paid £6,000, a silver or bronze London 2012 medallist receiving £3,000, any gold medallist from previous Games of Athens, Beijing and Vancouver paid £4,000, an Olympian £1,500 and a youth team athlete £400. Athletes can make up to two appearances a year. On Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph revealed how every other top-10 Olympic nation, through their national Olympic committee or government, was paying athletes cash for success. Italy will pay £116,000 for each gold medal, with the Russian government paying £85,000. Both Germany and Australia, which have similar pre-Games government support for athletes that the UK provides, will also each pay more than £12,000 for a gold medal. But the new BOA marketing scheme, while not a direct payment, will be particularly enticing for members of any winning teams who may not have the high profile and corporate marketability of superstars such as Sir Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington or Tom Daley. The proposed remuneration is less than the big names can attract in the open marketplace but more than lesser name individuals might secure. The scheme is being offered to competitors as they qualify for the Olympic team and the athletes can block out their existing sponsors and any future category they may want to pursue in future. But once they have signed, the athletes are then required to appear for any of the BOA's scheme sponsors, unless they have previously blocked out that category. "The athletes rights scheme is entirely voluntary," BOA communications director Darryl Seibel said. The BOA says it will rotate the use of the athlete appearances and a sponsor cannot specifically request a certain athlete. Rather they have to request a sport and the BOA will submit a list of names. Up until the end of the year the athletes are contracted to Locog and the BOA, giving those organisations the right to use their name, image and performance during the Games and afterwards if they are used as part of a group of at least four athletes. Locog is paying winning TeamGB athletes £10,000 to use their image on Royal Mail stamps.