Athletes in one of the top-watched sports will receive compensation for winning gold medals in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
What Happened: Winning a gold medal for an Olympic athlete can be financially rewarding. Countries can get bonuses or score future endorsements and sponsorships.
For the 2024 Summer Olympics, taking place in Paris from July 26 through Aug. 11, track and field athletes will have an increased incentive to win a gold medal.
World Athletics, the global governing body of track and field, is setting aside $2.4 million from its International Olympic Committee (IOC) revenue share to pay gold medal winners.
This translates to $50,000 per gold medal for the 48 track and field events, with $50,000 being split for relay teams.
The World Athletics will also pay silver and bronze winners in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, according to Sportico.
This marks the first world body to pay Olympic winners. The IOC said it is up to each international federation or national team to decide how to pay its share of income.
World Athletics pays winners at the world championships, with 2023 winners getting $70,000 and payments made down to eighth-place finishers ($5,000) in some cases, as shared by Sportico.
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Why It's Important: Olympian Sebastian Coe, who is a leading contender as the next IOC president, runs World Athletics. The governing body's decision to pay gold medal winners could indicate future plans if Coe chairs the IOC.
"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 U.S. pays out medal winners in the Olympics. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Team USA paid $37,500 for gold medal winners, $22,500 for silver medal winners and $15,000 for bronze medal winners.
Other countries with fewer athletes pay out more for medal winners. Hong Kong offered around $638,000 for a gold medal win, while Singapore paid around $740,000 for a gold medal win, according to NPR.
Some countries like New Zealand and the U.K. do not award bonuses for gold medal or medal winners.
While this could mark a first step in paying Olympic athletes and other sports could follow, the announcement also comes in a potential shift away from the amateurism of those competing in the games.
In the past, only amateur athletes were only to participate in the Olympic games, with some exceptions for team sports. Some countries also didn't allow athletes to receive compensation for the Olympics, including endorsements.
Over the years, rules have changed and athletes now make money from endorsements and sponsorships. For some of the smaller sports, Olympic athletes often face financial hardships for training and have part-time jobs to help fund their athletic efforts.
The push to pay athletes for their Olympic accomplishments could forever change the global games.
This summer’s Olympics are expected to be widely watched around the world thanks to media partnerships, like one with Comcast Corporation CMCSA in the U.S.
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