World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe has defended the decision to become the first Olympic sport to dish out prize money, with each Paris gold medallist receiving $50,000.
Race walkers Brian Daniel Pintado of Ecuador and Yang Jiayu of China were the first to benefit after their 20 kilometres titles on Thursday, and in all WA is giving out $2.4 million across the 48 events in the showcase Games sport.
The WA decision has been met with criticism. Other Olympic sports federations have said they simply do not have the funds to introduce prize money. The Olympics were originally meant to be for amateurs.
But Coe, a twice 1,500m gold medallist from 1980 and 1984, said he ‘finds nothing strange’ about the decision.
He said he was surprised that critics do not understand that top athletes need to be supported because they must be part of the sport’s profile and of its growth.
Managing director Jon Ridgeon said that ‘an important part of our strategy for the future over recent years has been to make sure
that we award the athletes’ because they are ‘the stars of the show.’
He said an athlete should be rewarded at the Olympics just like at world championships where WA has been dishing out prize money for years.
WA has said it plans to add silver and bronze medallists to the prize money pool at Los Angeles 2028.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it is distributing millions to the federations and national Olympic committees to help support athletes indirectly.
Source: Ghana News Agency