FORGET THE millions that Michael Phelps will make from wearing a certain watch, playing a particular video game or munching a marketable energy bar. Never mind the extra zero on the end of Kobe's shoe contract after these Games. And so what if Usain Bolt's appearance fee now includes two cars and a small island for every 10 seconds of sprinting. Glenn Eller is going to be a homeowner. 

Eller's gold medal in double trap last week was among the six medals won in Beijing by eagle-eyed U.S. marksmen, who hadn't shot this well at an Olympics since 1984. It may sound excessively mercenary to measure Olympic success by dollar signs, but the performance bonuses for the successful sharpshooters arguably rewarded athletes who could most use the benefits. Before the Games, USA Shooting set up a unique incentive plan which increased the rewards for individual medals by a factor of how many medals the team won. Because the team hit its maximum projected haul of six, the spoils were large for athletes who must generally hold down regular jobs that still allow them time for extensive practice sessions.

"One of the things we identified that could make us better was teamwork, getting good vibes," said Matt Emmons, a silver medalist in the 50-meter prone. "We set it up so everyone would pull for each other." It's easy to pull for Eller, a 26-year-old Army specialist at Fort Benning, Ga., who earns $800 per biweekly paycheck. He picked up an $80,000 bonus from USA Shooting for his gold and $25,000 from the USOC, which he says will allow him to move out of the spare room he rents from a friend and into his first house. "I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest," says Eller, who failed to win a medal at his previous two Olympics. "I never thought I'd see this much. I didn't know everyone would do so well." Another gold medal winner, in skeet, was Vincent Hancock, the precocious 19-year-old private, first class, who is also stationed at Fort Benning. Named world shooter of the year at 16, Hancock is also known for his habit of pacing between rounds rather than seeking the meditative calm favored by most shooters. Kim Rhode, 29, a veterinary student from El Monte, Calif., had won three Olympic medals in double trap, but when the women's event was eliminated this year, she switched to women's skeet and won a silver. Jason Turner, 33, from Rochester, N.Y., won a bronze in 10-meter air pistol after North Korea's Kim Jong Su, the original third-place finisher, failed a doping test. Corey Cogdell, a 21-year-old Alaskan hunter who began shooting in national competitions only two years ago, took bronze in the women's trap.

All will share the riches with Eller, whose father, Butch, watched the 1996 Atlanta Games with him from the stands and told him he would win the Olympics someday, even if there was no money to be made at it. Half of his prediction was on target.