World Athletics to award prize money at Paris Olympics

World Athletics (WA) has announced that the winners of this year Track and field events at the forthcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games will awarded with cash prize money.

The winners of Gold will each receive $50,000 in prize money, WA said on Wednesday, making it the first Olympic sport with a direct monetary reward.

“A total prize pot of US$2.4 million has been ring fenced from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation, which is received by World Athletics every four years,” World Athletics said in a statement.

“This will be used to reward athletes who win a gold medal in each of the 48 athletics events in Paris with US$50,000,” it added.

This change in policy is meant “to recognize that the revenue share that we receive is in large part because our athletes are the stars of the show,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.

World Athletics also said that starting with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the prize money would be extended to the winners of silver and bronze medals.

The modern Olympics began as an amateur sports event that does not award the winners monetarily, but star performers can get money from their governments, sports bodies, or lucrative sponsorship deals.

The Paris 2024 Games, the biggest-ever sporting event held in France, will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.