World Athletics will pay $50,000 to each individual track and field gold medalist and winning relay team at the Paris Olympics and says it’s the first international sports federation to award prize money at the Games, per a press release Wednesday morning.
World Athletics also committed to awarding prize money at a tiered level to silver and bronze medalists at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“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,” World Athletics President Seb Coe, who won Olympic 1500m gold and 800m silver in 1980 and 1984 for Great Britain, said in a press release.
World Athletics’ total prize money pool is $2.4 million for the 48 track and field events on the Olympic program. There are 42 individual events and six relays. Winning relay teams will share the $50,000 among the athletes.
World Athletics is using money from the IOC’s revenue share allocation where the IOC distributes money to international federations across Olympic sports after each Games.
After Tokyo, the IOC contributed $540 million to support international federations, including $39.48 million to World Athletics.
Some National Olympic Committees, including the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and governments also award prize money to their nation’s medalists.
The USOPC awarded $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze at recent Games.
