Track and subject is ready to develop into the primary sport to introduce prize cash on the Olympics, with World Athletics saying Wednesday it could pay $50,000 to gold medalists in Paris.
The transfer is a symbolic break with the newbie previous of the Olympics in one of many video games’ most-watched occasions.
The governing physique of athletics stated it was setting apart $2.4 million to pay the gold medalists throughout the 48 males’s, ladies’s and combined occasions on the monitor and subject program for this yr’s Paris Olympics. Relay groups will break up the $50,000 between their members. Payments for silver and bronze medalists are deliberate to start out from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe instructed reporters that the transfer is supposed “to recognize that the revenue share that we receive is in large part because our athletes are the stars of the show.”
The prize cash will come out of the share of Olympic income that that the IOC distributes to World Athletics.
However, the transfer may upset the stability of energy within the Olympic motion forward of the Paris Games. Coe stated World Athletics solely gave the International Olympic Committee “a heads-up” of its intentions on Wednesday morning, shortly earlier than it revealed its announcement.
In response, the IOC stated it was as much as every sport’s governing physique to determine learn how to spend its share of Olympic income.
“The IOC redistributes 90% of all its income, in particular to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs),” the IOC stated. “This means that, every day, the equivalent of $4.2 million goes to help athletes and sports organizations at all levels around the world. It is up to each IF and NOC to determine how to best serve their athletes and the global development of their sport.”
The trendy Olympics originated as an newbie sports activities occasion and the IOC doesn’t award prize cash. However, many medalists obtain funds from their international locations’ governments, nationwide sports activities our bodies or from sponsors.
“I’m probably the last generation to have been on the 75-pence (95-cent) meal voucher and second-class rail fare, competing for my own country. So believe me, I do understand the nature of the transition we’ve been in,” Coe stated.
The British runner gained gold within the 1,500 meters on the 1980 and 1984 Games in an period when Olympic monitor was on the verge of opening as much as skilled athletes.
“It’s a completely different planet from when I was competing, so it’s very important that this sport recognizes the change in that landscape and the added pressures on many competitors.”
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee awarded $37,500 to gold medalists on the final Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021. Singapore’s National Olympic Council guarantees $1 million for Olympic gold, a feat solely achieved as soon as to date by a Singaporean competitor.
In sports activities like tennis and golf, the Olympic event is the one time in a season that many professional gamers compete without spending a dime, with medals on provide however no prize cash. But Coe didn’t need to speculate on whether or not different occasions may observe monitor and subject’s lead.
“I’ve always made it a point not to speak on behalf of other sports,” Coe stated.
The transfer by World Athletics might be seen as an indicator of Coe’s intentions for the Olympics as an entire if he makes a run for the IOC presidency.
“I haven’t ruled it in, and I certainly haven’t ruled it out,” Coe stated final yr when requested whether or not he would contemplate working for the IOC’s high publish when Thomas Bach’s time period ends in 2025. The IOC sometimes disapproves of any public campaigning for the presidency and Coe’s feedback drew criticism from Bach.
There’s no signal but of every other Olympic sport following monitor’s lead. World Athletics is an outlier financially because it will get nearly all its funding from its personal occasions just like the world championships. The governing our bodies for a lot of smaller sports activities rely upon their IOC funds to outlive the four-year cycle till the subsequent Games.
World Aquatics, which oversees occasions like swimming, diving and water polo, instructed The Associated Press it thought of introducing Olympic prize cash within the run-up to the final Summer Olympics in Tokyo however as a substitute opted to extend prize funds at its personal competitions. Its world championships paid $20,000 per particular person gold medal this yr.
Olympic gold medalists in monitor and subject will nonetheless earn much less prize cash than at World Athletics’ personal world championships. Last yr’s version in Budapest paid out prize cash all the way down to eighth place with $70,000 on provide for particular person gold medalists.
Athletes must go “the usual anti-doping procedures” on the Olympics earlier than they obtain the brand new prize cash, World Athletics added.
It’s unsure how prize cash would match into the American faculty system, although current adjustments that permit gamers to revenue from sponsorship offers have undercut restrictions on athlete funds.
“I sincerely hope so,” Coe stated when requested if he anticipated the NCAA to permit faculty athletes to simply accept Olympic prize cash. “The rules and protocols have changed, and I can’t imagine the NCAA would think that this is in any way other than helpful for the support and the ecosystem that the athletes are now operating under.”
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AP sports activities: https://apnews.com/sports
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
