World Athletics on Wednesday announced a reward of US$50,000 (41,59,865 Rupees) to Gold medalists at the upcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris. Out of the 2.4 million dollars enclosed price World Athletics receives from the international Olympic committee every four years a share has been allocated to champions in each of 48 athletic competitions at the event and Relay teams will share the winners’ prize pot.
“This is the continuation of a journey we started back in 2015, which sees all the money World Athletics receives from the International Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games go directly back into our sport,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe commented.
“We started with the Olympic dividend payments to our Member Federations, which saw us distribute an extra US$5m a year on top of existing grants aimed at athletics growth projects, and we are now in a position to also fund gold medal performances for athletes in Paris, with a commitment to reward all three medallists at the LA28 Olympic Games,” he added.
Coe would further say, “While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is.”
When Briton Coe won his 1,500 metres gold medals at the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympics was officially a competition for amateurs, as was athletics. Although his sport soon fully embraced professionalism, the Olympics has remained free from prize money, though athletes in many sports can expect hefty bonuses from sponsors for triumphing in the biggest shop window of all.
Athletics is the Olympics‘ biggest sport, by number of participants and TV audiences but the vast majority of the athletes, including many Olympic medallists, face a constant struggle for funding.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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