World Athletics to Pay Paris Olympic Winners

World Athletics will become the first international federation to award prize money to winning athletes at an Olympic Games starting at the Olympic Summer Games in Paris.

The federation will make available a total prize pot of $2.4 million, which will come from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation that World Athletics receives every four years. Athletes who win a gold medal in each of the 48 track-and-field events in Paris will earn $50,000. Relay teams will receive the same amount as a team, to be shared among members of the team.

The program initially will reward athletes for gold medals only. The initiative also includes a commitment to extend the prize money at a tiered level, including prize money for Olympic silver and bronze medal winners starting with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medalists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognizing the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. “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.”

Coe noted that World Athletics has already started paying Olympic dividends in past years to member federations, totaling $5 million a year on top of existing grants.

“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,” he said.

Athletes typically received medal bonuses from their national Olympic committees based on their performance of the Games. But the World Athletics announcement marks the first time a federation intends to supplement those payments as well. The federation’s prize money will be contingent upon the World Athletics ratification process, which requires athletes to undergo and clear anti-doping procedures.
In response, the IOC said it was up to each sport’s governing body to decide how to spend its share of Olympic revenue.

“The IOC redistributes 90% of all its income, in particular to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs),” the IOC said. “This means that, every day, the equivalent of $4.2 million goes to help athletes and sports organizations at all levels around the world. It is up to each IF and NOC to determine how to best serve their athletes and the global development of their sport.”