Gold medals will mean cold, hard cash _ and lots of it _ for US wrestlers

Get a wrestling gold, get a lot of green

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A gold medal at the London Olympics will be worth $250,000 for U.S. wrestlers.

The prizes will come from the Living the Dream Medal Fund, which is designed to “move the needle” on the medal haul at the Olympics and world championships, USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender said Wednesday. Americans won three wrestling medals at the Beijing Olympics, their worst showing since 1968.

Silver medalists in London would get $50,000 and bronze medalists $25,000.

A gold medal at the world championships in September, 2010 or 2011 would be worth $50,000. Silver medalists at worlds would get $25,000 and bronze medalists $15,000.

The bonus program is a significant increase from the $65,000 Henry Cejudo earned for his freestyle gold at 121 pounds in Beijing.