University of Texas swimmer Joseph Schooling — a bronze medalist for Singapore at the 2015 world championships — will walk to the starting blocks at the Rio Olympics seeking a gold medal that would give him about $750,000 without jeopardizing his ability to compete for the Longhorns.
He would get around $375,000 for a silver, nearly $187,500 for a bronze.
Schooling’s ability to keep this money comes from the NCAA Division I membership’s 2015 approval of a rules exception for foreign athletes that parallels one adopted in 2001 for American athletes.
The exception allows athletes to keep money from their country’s national Olympic governing body based on their finish in one event per year that is designated as the highest level of international competition for the year by the governing body.