Do GB athletes get paid at the Winter Olympics?

Unlike athletes from many other nations competing, members of Team GB at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina are not given additional money for winning a medal in any event.

However, all athletes receive necessary funding by the Great Britain team in order to train at an elite standard.

Team GB have a structured pay scale for athletes depending on their status and how likely they are to win a medal at events such as the summer or winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Members of Team GB receive funding towards their living and sporting costs through the Athlete Performance Award (APA).

This is a direct payment which is funded by the National Lottery.

UK Sport centrally control the recipients of APA funding which is designed to help athletes train in their sport's high-performance programme and work towards achieving podium finishes at Olympic and Paralympic events.

The recipients of APAs are assessed by UK Sport on a yearly basis.

APAs are not designed to support athletes who could be considered professional, as a result of a professional or semi-professional contract, prize money or endorsements.

Any athletes deemed to potentially not require an APA will undergo means-testing to determine whether they would qualify.

Should an athlete be deemed to earn more than £65,000 per annum, including APA funding and money earned individually, they will have their APA funding reduced so that their total income does not exceed the £65,000 threshold.

APA funding is awarded based on a grading system, with Grade A denoting the higher-end established athletes and Grade E encompassing up-and-coming prospects.

All APA funded athletes also receive access to private medical care, a Personal Development Award including financial support, access to Professional Lifestyle practitioners and access to coaching, sports science, medicine and other sporting expenses.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awards the top three athletes at an event with medals - gold, silver or bronze.

The top eight receive a diploma for their achievements.

The Olympics do not pay athletes for winning medals. This is because the IOC would end up only rewarding around 1000 athletes and teams across the Summer and Winter Olympics, with the majority of these medallists coming from well-funded National Olympic Committees (NOCs).

This means that prize money for Olympic medallists would only further existing inequalities between nations.

"It would downgrade the Olympic Games to an elitist event with competition amongst only ten per cent of all 206 NOCs," the IOC executive board said.

Instead 'Olympic Solidarity' provides assistance to all NOCs for athlete development programmes, particularly those with the greatest need.

Their aim is to ensure that athletes from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to succeed on the Olympic stage through "essential funding".

Athletes under this programme receive financial support through monthly grants which contribute to their training and qualification efforts - in their home countries or training centres around the world.

An IOC spokesperson said 447 athletes are benefiting from the support at the 2026 Winter Olympics, six of whom are Team GB athletes.

The IOC executive board said they support fair financial rewards for athletes, but it is ultimately a nation's responsibility to support them.

"It is a question of principle, efficiency and fair distribution, who pays such prize money," the IOC executive board said.

They added that athletes who take part in the Olympics are members of the team of their NOC.

"This results in a national responsibility to support them in their preparations prior to the Games and reward them after the Games, and such financial commitments have been given over many decades by NOCs, governments, private institutions, sponsors and others," they added.

The IOC have a different responsibility, which is to enable as many athletes as possible from all 206 NOCs, Refugee Olympic Team and all Olympic sports to participate in qualification for the Olympic Games, and eventually make it to the Games themselves.

The IOC say that in order to mitigate inequalities, they distribute around £734m every Olympic cycle of four years through Olympic Solidarity and commercial contributions.

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.