Track and field becomes first sport to pay prize money at Olympics
Al Jazeera
In an Olympic first, gold medalists at the Paris 2024 Games will receive pay for play.
Track and field is to become the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics with World Athletics saying it will pay $50,000 to gold medalists in Paris.
The move, announced on Wednesday, is a symbolic break with the amateur past of the Olympics in some of the games’ most-watched events.
The governing body of athletics said it is setting aside $2.4m to pay the gold medalists across the 48 men’s, women’s and mixed events on the track and field programme for this year’s Paris Olympics. Relay teams will split the $50,000 among their members. Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned to start from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe told reporters that the move is meant “to recognize that the revenue share that we receive is in large part because our athletes are the stars of the show”.
The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) distributes to World Athletics.
