MADRID, 10 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
World Athletics, the governing body of world athletics, announced this Wednesday that it will allocate 2.4 million dollars (2.2 million euros) to reward the gold medalists in the Olympic Games, starting with this summer in Paris. .
The federation has made this “historic decision” to become “the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympic Games, financially rewarding athletes for reaching the pinnacle of sporting success, beginning at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.” “.
For this reason, it has reserved this amount of 2.4 million dollars from the income allocation it receives every four years from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and of which it will use 50,000 (46,000 euros) for each athlete who wins a medal. gold in each of the 48 athletics events at the Paris event, while the relay teams will receive the same amount to be distributed among the team
This World Athletics initiative also includes the firm commitment to extend the prize money at a staggered level to the silver and bronze medalists at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The organization also clarified that this payment will depend on the process of a process ratification, which will include athletes who undergo and pass the usual anti-doping procedures.
“The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medalists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underlining our commitment to empowering athletes and recognizing the vital role they play in the success of any Games. Olympics,” said Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics.
The leader stressed that this measure “is the continuation of a journey” that they began in 2015 “in which all the money that World Athletics receives from the IOC for the Olympic Games returns directly” to athletics.
“We began Olympic dividend payments to our member federations, which allowed us to distribute an additional $5 million a year on top of existing grants for athletics growth projects, and we are now in a position to also fund Olympic medals. athletes’ gold in Paris, with the commitment to reward the three medalists in Los Angeles 2028,” he added.
Coe acknowledged that “while it is impossible to place a commercial value on winning an Olympic medal, or the commitment and focus it takes to even represent a country at an Olympic Games,” it is important to start “somewhere” and make sure that “part of the income generated” by athletes at the Olympic Games “is returned directly to those who make the Games the global spectacle that they are.”