World Athletics Breaks Tradition: Offers Prize Money for Paris 2024

In a groundbreaking move, World Athletics has announced a total prize pot of £1.89 million for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, making them the first international sport federation to award Olympic prize money. This decision will see individual track and field gold medallists receive $50,000 (£39,400), breaking a 128-year tradition of not offering prize money to Olympic champions.

World Athletics president Lord Coe stated that this decision is a continuation of the journey towards fairly rewarding the stars of the show. The timing of this announcement comes amidst complaints from top athletes about the lack of prize money at major events, including USA’s Noah Lyles and Team GB’s Josh Kerr.

The £1.9 million prize pot will be funded by World Athletics’ share of the International Olympic Committee’s revenue, which primarily comes from broadcast rights. While this move is a step towards recognizing the achievements of athletes, only gold medallists will receive the prize money in Paris, with silver and bronze medallists potentially being rewarded in the future.

However, questions remain about the inclusion of para athletes in this prize money initiative, as World Para Athletics operates separately from World Athletics. There is also speculation about whether other sports will follow suit and offer prize money to Olympic medallists in the future.

Overall, this decision by World Athletics marks a significant shift in the way Olympic athletes are rewarded for their achievements, and it will be interesting to see how this move impacts the world of sports in the years to come.