Athletics is the first sport to add prize money to the Olympics

MONACO – Athletics is set to become the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics. World Athletics announced Wednesday that gold medalists in Paris will be paid $50,000.

The athletics federation said it is providing $2.4 million to pay gold medalists in the 48 disciplines of the track and field program at this year's Paris Olympics. Relay teams split the $50,000 among their members. Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal or the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympics, I think it is important that we start somewhere and “The donations our athletes make to the Olympics go directly to those who make the Games the global spectacle they are,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe in a statement.

The prize money will come from the share of Olympic revenue that the IOC distributes to World Athletics and other governing bodies of individual sports.

Athletes must pass “standard anti-doping procedures” at the event before receiving the money, World Athletics added.

The modern Olympic Games are originally an amateur sporting event and the International Olympic Committee does not award prize money. However, many medalists receive payments from their country's government, national sports associations or sponsors.

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee awarded $37,500 to gold medalists at the last Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021. The National Olympic Council of Singapore is promising $1 million for Olympic gold, an achievement previously only achieved by one Singaporean competitor succeeded.

World Athletics' move could be seen as an indicator of Coe's intentions for the Olympics overall if he runs for the IOC presidency.

“I haven't ruled it out, and I certainly haven't ruled it out,” Coe said last year when asked if he would consider running for the IOC's top job when Thomas Bach's term ends in 2025. The IOC normally rejects any public campaign for the presidency.