Olympic medals will mean more cash for Canadian coaches

London 2012 Olympic medals. London 2012 Olympic medals designed by British artist David Watkins. The Olympic medals disk circular form is a metaphor for the world. The front of the medal always depicts the same imagery at the summer Games - the Greek Goddess of Sport - 'Nike' - stepping out of the depiction of the Parthenon and arriving in London.

For the first time, the Canadian Olympic Committee will pay bonus money to coaches of athletes who win medals at the Summer Games in London.

At $10,000 per gold, $7,500 for silver and $5,000 for bronze, it's half the reward Canadian athletes earn for winning medals.

The Canadian Olympic Committee also features coaches prominently in glossy videos promoting athletes for the London Games. Randy Bennett has speaking parts in swimmer Ryan Cochrane's video. Cesar Henderson gets the same treatment in diver Jennifer Abel's.

"For sure, the athletes are the ones who are going to perform. But without the coach, we cannot get there," synchronized swimmer Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon says. "I think it's important the coach gets rewarded at some point if we want to keep them, especially in our country. We don't want them to move to another country and give their knowledge to another (country)."

The athlete and their national sport federation will identify the coach to receive the bonus in the event of a medal. The athlete also has the option of dividing the money between multiple coaches, according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.

"We talk about coaches every day in our business," says chief executive officer Chris Overholt. "In a lot of ways, they're so much the backbone of athletes' planning and preparation and key performances. They are the ones alongside them from the beginning."

The Committee began paying athletes $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing under a program called the Athletes Excellence Fund. The bonus bill in Beijing was $515,000 and then a whopping $1.7 million at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

When a team wins a medal, each athlete on the team receives the financial reward, so two gold medals in hockey made for a hefty price tag in 2010.

Under the current formula, coaches would have been paid $215,500 in 2010 and $127,500 in 2008. The Athletes Excellence Fund's total budget from 2009 to 2012 is $5.2 million. Athletes also receive bonus money from the fund between Olympic Games. A top-five result at a world championship is worth $5,000, but that hasn't been extended to coaches yet.

The money comes from the Canadian Olympic Committee's corporate fundraising coffers.