World Athletics, the governing body for global track and field, announced Wednesday that it will begin paying athletes for their success at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, a significant break from the Olympics’ “amateur” roots.
World Athletics said it would set aside $2.4 million from its IOC revenue sharing allocation to pay the gold medalists in all 48 Olympic track and field events this summer. That’s $50,000 for every individual gold, and $50,000 to be shared for every relay gold. The governing body said it is committed to also offering money to silver and bronze medalists starting with the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
It’s a significant break from how the Olympics has typically rewarded athletes for their success. While medalists can receive bonuses from their national teams (or personal sponsors) for reaching the podium, the IOC or its global governing bodies have never before paid athletes for their success. World Athletics’ program is more meritocratic and creates a direct link between the IOC’s Olympic revenue and payments made to some of the games’ biggest stars.
The IOC said in a statement that it distributes 90% of its income and that “it is up to each” international federation or national team to determine how to spend it.
There could also be wider implications at play here. World Athletics is run by former Olympian and British politician Sebastian Coe, who is considered a leading contender to be the next IOC president when Thomas Bach’s term ends next yea. The decision by World Athletics to pay gold medalists could indicate a philosophical shift at the highest level should he be in charge moving forward.
“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal,” Coe said in a statement, “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.”
The Olympics payouts are less than what World Athletics pays its athletes for their success at its world championships. At the 2023 event in Budapest, gold medalists were given $70,000, with payments made all the way to eight place ($5,000).
It does, however, top what many national teams pay their stars at the Olympics. Team USA gave its athletes $37,500 for every gold at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Japan gave about $45,000 and South Africa gave about $37,000.
World Athletics reported $237.5 million in revenue in the four years from 2019-2022.