PARIS, France — The modern Olympics have historically been an amateur event. In fact, with some sports like golf and tennis, the Olympics are the only time many professional athletes compete with no money on the line.
But this year, one of the most-watched sports is shaking that up with the introduction of prize money for winners at the Paris Games.
In April, the governing body of track and field, World Athletics, announced it would pay gold medal winners in track and field at the Paris Olympics, the first sport to do so at the Summer Games. 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.”
How much will track and field winners get paid?
World Athletics said it has set aside $2.4 million to pay gold medalists across the 48 men's, women's and mixed events at the Paris Olympics.
Solo gold medalists will make $50,000. Relay teams will split $50,000 among their members.
Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned to begin at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Olympic gold medalists in track and field will still earn less prize money than at World Athletics’ own world championships. The 2023 world championships in Budapest paid out prize money down to eighth place with $70,000 for individual gold medalists.
Where does the prize money come from?
The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that that the IOC distributes to World Athletics.
The IOC gives each sport’s governing body authority to decide how to spend its share of Olympic revenue. The IOC does not award prize money, but many medalists receive payments from their countries’ governments, national sports bodies or from sponsors.
Will any other sports pay Olympic athletes?
There’s no sign yet of any other Olympic sport following suit. World Athletics is an outlier financially since it gets almost all its funding from its own events like the world championships. The governing bodies for many smaller sports depend on their IOC payments to survive the four-year cycle until the next Games.
World Aquatics, which oversees events like swimming, diving and water polo, told The Associated Press it considered introducing Olympic prize money in the run-up to the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo but instead opted to increase prize funds at its own competitions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
