Get ready for some serious number crunching.
Race fees
Despite the sport's rapidly-increasing popularity and terrific excitement value, prize money in athletics is pretty insubstantial - unless you're Usain Bolt.
The winner of an individual Diamond League race receives just under £8,000 - the culmination of months of work. Cristiano Ronaldo takes about four-and-a half hours to earn that much in wages alone. Bolt has managed this 23 times, and has won an overall Diamond League Race once: that's about £210,000 so far.
A gold medal at the IAAF World Championships is worth around £46,500, a silver £23,000, and a world record £77,500 (Bolt doesn't do bronze medals, and has only once deigned to pick up a silver). He has 11 golds, one silver, plus two individual and two relay world records. That's £728,250 at major championships (Jamaican athletes don't receive prize money for Olympic or Commonwealth medals, unlike other nations).
On top of that, the sprinter can command huge appearance fees, given his headlining potential, reaching the dizzying heights of £270,000. If he runs a typical non-championship 100 metres in 10 seconds, that's £27,000 a second. Take that, Cristiano.
Does he justify such sums? Absolutely. Bolt single-handedly sells out stadiums. His appearance at the 2010 Penn Relays in Philadelphia saw the single highest attendance in the event's 118-year history, of over 50,000 spectators.
The hottest ticket at the London Olympics was, without a shadow of a doubt, the men's 100 metre final, for which organisers - who received more than a million entrances into the ticket ballot for the event - were able to charge up to £874 per seat.
Sponsorship
Before the Beijing Olympics, Bolt's only sponsor was his kit supplier, Puma, which has supported the star since his junior days, and Digicel, a Jamaican mobile phone company.
His importance to the former cannot be overstated: the brand's CEO, Jochen Zeitz, estimated Bolt's marketing value at just over £277 million after his history-making efforts at the 2009 Berlin World Championships. The German sportswear brand provides his largest pay cheque by some margin, and the athlete receives the astronomical sum of just under £8,000,000 a year for his troubles: more than the annual fees commanded by Maria Sharapova, Kobe Bryant or Cristiano Ronaldo from kit giant Nike.
In terms of sponsorship, Bolt jostles not with other track stars, but global icons like Lionel Messi and LeBron James, and years featuring in major championships make him an even hotter commodity for his 10 global and seven regional partners.
One can't help but wonder why McDonald's hasn't got in touch with the Jamaican yet. He famously ate 1,000 chicken nuggets during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and has been known to treat event volunteers to burgers from the brand. He's also hugely charismatic, instantly recognisable, and can run a 9.58 second 100 metres with chicken nuggets in his system: he's the perfect spokesperson.
Perhaps they're concerned that any marketing gains might be offset by the sales they would subsequently lose to Bolt himself.
After all, the man is worth almost £47,000,000 and counting: that's a lot of nuggets.
The known sums
Puma - £7,750,000 a year
Gatorade - £2-3,000,000 a year (plus a bonus every time he's pictured drinking it)
Visa - £500,000+
Virgin Media - £2,000,000
Digicel - £100,000
Soul Electronics - £100,000
Regupol - a world-class track installed at his training venue in Jamaica
Other supporters
Hublot
Nissan
All Nippon Airways
Gibson Innovations
Enertor (insoles)
ChampionShave
Optus, Telkom, Fastweb, Celcom
Banco Original
