Everyone knows what you get when you are faster, higher or stronger than anyone else at the Olympics. A gold medal.

And if you are lucky, maybe also some money — and in some places, a buffalo or a free colonoscopy.

Pakistan has been sending athletes to the Olympics since 1948 and, before this year, had won three gold medals, all in men’s field hockey. But individual gold had been elusive. And the country had qualified only seven athletes for the 2024 Games.

One of them was the javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who had placed second a year ago in the World Athletics Championships and was a serious contender to win. Sure enough, he hurled the javelin 305 feet, longer than the distance between the goal lines of a football field, to set an Olympic record.

That earned him a gold medal and his moment with the Pakistani national anthem on the podium. But it also earned him a buffalo.

Nadeem’s father-in-law, Muhammad Nawaz, offered him the animal. Nadeem is from a rural part of Punjab Province, where such a gift is considered an honor.

“He could have given me five acres of land. But then I said, ‘OK, fine,’ he gave me a buffalo, that is also nice,” Nadeem said, according to The Hindustan Times.

And the gifts did not stop with the buffalo. A businessman gave Nadeem a Suzuki Alto, a small Japanese car, which prompted some commenters to say that he deserved a finer vehicle, the Indian news source The Print reported. He got 150 million Pakistani rupees (roughly $500,000) from local governments. There were also promises of naming a sports academy and a stadium for him.

For his part, Nadeem has leveraged his public prominence to advocate that a women’s university to be placed in his hometown, Mian Channu. Currently, women there must travel at least two hours to get to a higher education institution.

The Philippines is another country without an enormous amount of success at the Olympics: just one gold medal before this year.

So patriotic citizens lined up to promise gifts and prizes to Carlos Yulo, a gymnast who won both the floor exercise and the vault. Among them, the Philippine news site Rappler reported, were a three-bedroom apartment, a Toyota Land Cruiser, free food for life from several restaurants and free colonoscopies or other endoscopic procedures. (The doctor volunteering that prize offered to shift it to “indigent patients of your choosing.”)

Yulo was also promised at least 50 million Philippine pesos (about $900,000) from various government agencies and well-heeled sport fans.

It is not uncommon for countries, especially ones without decades of Olympic success, to offer a range of incentives and rewards for gold. In 2021, the Indonesian badminton gold medalists Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu were offered cash, a house, and franchises in a chain of meatball restaurants.

There were no meatballs on offer at the ancient Olympic Games in Greece starting in 776 B.C. Winners were presented with a crown of olive leaves.

Not a free colonoscopy, but it’s something.