Athletics federation to pay gold medal winners $50,000 at Olympics.
Apparently without discussion with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Athletics has announced that it will award gold medal winners $50,000 (around £40,000) at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
This is a further break with the tradition that the modern Games were open only to amateur athletes until the IOC abolished the rule in 1984, but no prizemoney was paid to competitors who made the medal podium.
Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president, denied that the decision was at odds with Olympic values and revealed plans to increase the financial rewards for athletes in future Olympics.
World Athletics intends to extend prize money to silver and bronze medallists at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
This move will undoubtably put pressure on other sports associations to match the World Athletics move.
Some nations have made payments to their athletes for winning gold medals . . . Team USA gave its athletes $37,500 for every gold at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Japan gave about $45,000 and South Africa gave about $37,000.
For sailing, which has never had a regular stadium audience presentation, top athletes have tended to build their reputation with success at the Games, before moving to a professional big-boat career.
In recent years this has been expanded by the professional world of America’s Cup and SailGP events, which are developing to provide regular circuits with a heavy multimedia involvement.
World Sailing attempted, but failed to provide prize money in its World Cup Series for the ten Olympic classes, and it is interesting that World Athletics claims to be using IOC money to provide the Olympic winners payments.
World Sailing received around a £12 million payout from Tokyo 2020, perhaps they will join the Athletics federation with prizemoney for the ten sailing gold medalists at Paris.
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