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.

 

Americans won three wrestling medals at the Beijing Olympics, their worst showing since 1968.

Silver medalists in London would get $50,000 (£35,755) and bronze medalists $25,000 (£17,878).
 

A gold medal at the World Championships in September, 2010 or 2011 would be worth $50,000 (£35,755).

 

Silver medalists at worlds would get $25,000 (£17,878) and bronze medalists $15,000 (£10,727).
 

American athletes already get medal bonuses from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) - $25,000 (£17,878) for gold, $15,000 (£10,727) for silver and $10,000 (£7,164) for bronze - and many national governing bodies add to that.

 

USA Wrestling gave Henry Cejudo $15,000 (£10,727) for his freestyle gold medal at 121 pounds in Beijing, and a benefactor contributed another $50,000 (£35,755), bringing his total bonus to $65,000 (£46,566).

 

But the Living the Dream Fund awards will be a significant increase and among the largest bonuses for American athletes. 

 

The scheme has been partly launched to stop wrestlers leaving the sport and defecting to mixed martial arts, a mixture of sports that is becoming increasingly popular in the US.

 

Cejudo said: “MMA is growing, and it’s a basic wrestling sport.

 

"A lot of fighters are ex-wrestlers.

 

"A lot of guys take the easy way out, make quick money.

 

"This fund will keep wrestlers in wrestling.”

 

The Fund will be maintained as a restricted and segregated fund by USA Wrestling.

 

It will be overseen by a board that includes representatives of USA Wrestling as well as the group of stewards who have helped establish the Fund and will assist in financially underwriting it.

 

In addition to the support of the stewards, the funding will also come from a public fundraising programme as well as from existing support from USA Wrestling and the USOC.

 

Contributions to this Fund will only go directly to pay the awards to each athlete that achieves a spot on a World or Olympic podium.

 

Included among the stewards are all three team leaders for the US wrestling programs, Mike Novogratz, who is in charge of freestyle, Dave Barry, Greco-Roman, and Kim Martori-Wickey, women.

 

Mike Novogratz said: "This Fund has the soul purpose of increasing the stipends our athletes get for winning a medal, for making it to the podium at the World Championships or Olympic Games.

 

"We thought about this as a way of showing our appreciation, and the wrestling community's appreciation, for the hard work, sacrifice and dedication that these young men and women go through."

 

USA Wrestling has set up a website for the "Living the Dream Medal Fund", where wrestling supporters can make donations to the project.

 

People have been asked to give donations from $5 to $5,000 to the fund.

 

Jake Herbert (pictured), the US champion at 185 pounds, said: "It just shows how close-knit the wrestling community is.

 

"This sport brings all these amazing people together for a great cause.

 

"It's everybody helping everybody.

 

"We've got a young world team, a hungry group of guys and now there's a huge, huge pot of gold behind that gold medal at the end of the rainbow.

 

"It's going to be a good four-year cycle.

 

"We've got a great team, and we're going to do great things."