For the first time in Olympic history, gold medal winners in track and field events at the Paris Olympics will receive prize money from World Athletics. On Wednesday, the governing body announced that it will award USD $2.4 million across 48 events, providing Olympic gold medallists with $50,000 each.
This prize money will be in addition to the various amounts given to medallists by sponsors and national sporting organizations (NSOs). For example, during the Tokyo Olympics, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Own The Podium rewarded Canadian gold medal winners with CAD $20,000, silver medallists with $15,000, and bronze medallists with $10,000.
Some countries, such as Singapore and Italy, give athletes six-figure amounts for bringing home glory.
Each individual Olympic champion will receive $50,000 and relay teams will share the same amount among team members. The payment of the prize money will depend on World Athletics’ ratification process, which includes athletes undergoing drug testing.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a press release, “While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to 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.”
World Athletics plans to introduce this incentive for Paris and extend its prize money structure to Olympic silver and bronze medallists, starting at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The IAAF began paying prize money to gold medallists at the 1997 World Championships. Winners at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest received USD $70,000.
“The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medallists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering athletes and recognizing the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games,” Coe added.
