Incentives make bronze medalist feel like winner

If you're a U.S. gold medal winner, the answer is $25,000 courtesy of the U.S. Olympic Committee plus millions more in potential endorsement deals. A silver medal comes with a $15,000 prize, and a bronze medal brings in $10,000.

If you're Chinese, your gold medal is worth least $150,000 in national government prize money plus — yes — millions more in potential endorsement deals, according to a top Chinese athletics expert. Silver and bronze also pay.

If you are taekwondo bronze medal winner Rohullah Nikpai, the first Afghan to ever win an Olympic medal, you go home with a new house in the Afghan capital of Kabul courtesy of President Hamid Karzai, a new Toyota sedan and $20,000 from the Afghan-American owner of the country's main cell phone network.

"In my situation, this economic prize is very important for Afghan athletes," said Nikpai, who worked as an auto mechanic in Kabul before dedicating himself full-time to taekwondo. "This culture of incentives is very important all around the world but doesn't really exist in Afghanistan."

By the numbers

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gold medals for the Cuban boxing team. It is the first time in the country's history that the team did not have a champion in an Olympics in which it participated.

New events for Phelps

• Look out, London: Michael Phelps is coming to the 2012 Games and he's thinking about adding events to his repertoire. "I am looking forward to trying some new events, some events I've never really had the opportunity to swim since my schedule is always so crowded," Phelps said Sunday while taking part in the British capital's handover celebrations. Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing, said he's never competed in a backstroke event at a major international meet or in the 100 freestyle.

He wrote it

"This gold medal is back with its rightful owners."

Guard Dwyane Wade, in his diary for the AP after the U.S. men's hoops team defeated Spain in the final