World Athletics, the international governing body for athletics, announced this month that it will provide a $50,000 prize to athletes who win gold at the Paris Summer Olympics. It’s a first-of-its-kind move that adds another source of income for some Olympians, who traditionally receive tens of thousands of dollars in cash from their respective countries.
KEY FACTS
- World Athletics, which covers sports such as athletics, road running and event walking, said earlier this month that it allocated a total prize pool of $2.4 million from the revenue it receives every four years from the International Olympic Committee. Thus, it allows individual athletes to receive US$50,000 if they win a gold medal.
- The $50,000 prize will be split when given to relay teams and is a departure from tradition, as governing bodies and other neutral committees behind Olympic sports have never paid Olympians for medal-related achievements, unlike from the individual countries who have provided a wide range of monetary means for the medalists.
- Singapore pays its gold medalists nearly 20 times more than the United States, according to NBC News, which reported that the country paid out a taxable $737,000 to individual gold medalists at the last Olympics.
- Italy, which won 17 gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, gave its gold medalists a bonus of $201,000, paying out a total of $2.7 million by the end of the event, according to Forbes.
- US Olympians were paid $37,500 to secure a gold medal in Beijing, where the country won 25 gold medals and paid out a total of $1.5 million.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee provides the money for the gold medal award, awarding $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze, the Associated Press reports.
CONTRA
Another international sports body, the Association of International Summer Olympic Games Federations, spoke out against World Athletics’ decision in a statement on Friday. She said she was not informed or consulted about the announcement of the $50,000 prize. The association claims the prize “undermines the values of Olympism” and “ignores the less privileged athletes who are lower in the final rankings”.
BIG NUMBER
48. That’s how many athletics events will be eligible for the $50,000 World Athletics gold medal prize.
SURPRISING FACT
According to CNN, participation in the Olympics was once expressly limited to amateur athletes who were shunned by the International Olympic Committee if they took money or support to play. The change from amateurs to professional athletes, who carry with them the potential to earn money for the Olympics, occurred in the 1990s, when amateurism was removed from the Olympic Charter.
The dominant performance of the 1992 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, which won the gold medals at the Barcelona games, is widely regarded as the start of the professional era of the Olympics, the Associated Press reports. The team consisted of basketball greats like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, and more.
KEY BACKGROUND
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe told reporters that World Athletics gave the International Olympic Committee “information” of its intentions shortly before announcing the $50,000 prize, according to the Associated Press. In response, the IOC said that each sport’s governing body decides how to spend its share of Olympic revenue, the Associated Press reported. According to the website of the IOC, which is a not-for-profit organization, it redistributes 90% of all of its revenue from the Olympics to sports governing bodies such as World Athletics.
