Watching all the athletes performing in the Olympics made me think about all of the money it most have cost for each of them to be there. I'm not talking about the training, but the flights there, the time they have to take off work, etc. Yeah the Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukins have endorsements coming out of their ears, but what about everyone else? Did the U.S. Olympic Committee at least pay for everyone's flight to Beijing? Does each athlete get money for at least qualifying for the Olympics (to at least supliment their missed income from taking time off work)? And if the athlete's friends and families want to come and watch their loved ones perform, they have to pay for flights, hotel, food, to get into the events, etc... Crazy!!
There is an excellent commercial on TV in my area where there are three swimming competetors lined up ready to jump in the water. One of them from some country is saying to himself "I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win" the second from another country is saying "I'm gonna win, gonna win" and the Canadian athlete is saying something to himself along the lines of "I can get a second mortgage on my house, beg my family and friends for more money, get a part time job...oh yeah, I'm gonna win". Then the sponsor says they'll match any donation you make to Canadian athletes. I believe they're talking about money for training and coaches and nutritionists, etc., etc..... and I don't actually know the numbers for Canadian athletes or others from other countries... but I thought I'd share. And to answer you question, I don't know who pays. Maybe the IOC, member countries via sponsors or gov't funding? Aliens beam them over? So basically I don't really know anything about what I am talking about other than that commercial I saw on TV.
At least in Britain, the specifically Olympics related expenses are government covered. Flights, Olympic team coaches, running the national trials, etc. This wouldn't however cover the expense of actually training the athletes in the first place. However, the Lottery Fund, particularly in recent years, has contributed very large amounts, and we're seeing the results in the medal table. This largely came about after our disastrous 1-gold-games of the 90s, and Team GB are reaping the benefits now.
The Canadian government gives ~$1000 a month to medal hopefuls, iirc. (It's higher in most other developed countries.) Plus, there are a handful of large corporations that have had commercials on about how they sponsor several athletes.