World Athletics Introduces $50,000 Prize for Gold Medal Winners at Paris Olympics

Athletics will become the first sporting category to introduce prize money at the Olympics in Paris this summer with World Athletics, the international athletics federation, saying it will pay Olympic gold medal winners $50,000 at the Games.

The athletics governing organization reports it is setting aside $2.4 million to reward gold medalists across forty-eight events at Paris’s track and field prograe. Relay teams will divide the $50,000 between members.

A new milestone for our sport 🏟️

World Athletics becomes the first international federation to award prize money at the Olympic Games.

Take a look at some of the other major athletics milestones at the Olympics.

Press Release 🔗 https://t.co/8OZAwlJy5W pic.twitter.com/luNjZ9lhHP

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) April 10, 2024

Reward money for silver and bronze medalists is expected to begin at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The prize money will not apply at the Paralympics, which takes place from August 28th to September 8th, as Para-athletics is governed by World Para Athletics.

Lord Coe’s comments on prize money for gold medalists in athletics at the Olympics

“The introduction of prize money for gold medalists at the Olympics 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 told Sky News.

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 the athletes and recognising the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games.… pic.twitter.com/useLANqnHd

— Seb Coe (@sebcoe) April 10, 2024

Coe added, “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.”

The former British athlete went on to say, “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 also told Sky News that he wants athletes “to recognise that I see a very clear correlation between me announcing the new partners, the Sony’s, the Deloitte’s, the Morinaga’s that come to the table and the fact that they are able to benefit from the proceeds of the growth of the sport.”

He further claimed that he does not think prize money ruins the spirit of the Olympics, saying, “Rather than have the athletes as the first thought and the last consideration, and singing a good song about how important they are, that needs to be reflected.”

“This prize money I see as a raft of funds that we are making available within the sport that may actually allow those athletes to remain in the sport for another four years,” he added.

“And look, not everybody is going to win an Olympic title at 100 [meters] or 1,500 [meters], but we’ve got 48 disciplines, and this will help the athletes.”

Greg Rutherford, who won gold in the long jump at London 2012, told BBC Sport: “This is a brilliant step in the right direction and I take my hat off to Seb Coe and the rest of the World Athletics staff for initiating this improvement.”