The Israel Olympic Committee will award gold medalists at the Beijing Olympic Games 140,000 US dollars each (New Israeli Shekel 500,000).

A silver medalist will get 70,000 US dollars, and bronze medalist will get about 47,000 US dollars, according to local website "Globes".

Israeli Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport will also award bonuses to Olympic medal winners, although the amount has not yet been determined.

The bonuses for Olympic medalists is considered a major perk because Israel's sports sponsorship market is considered undeveloped.

The bonuses of some other countries for their Olympic medalists are fairly low, but the athletes can make a fortune in product endorsements. Germany, for example, gives Olympic gold medalists an 18,000 US dollars bonus, Canada awards them 16,000 US dollars, and Japan 19,000 US dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2008)