Gold medallists at Paris Olympics to win $50,000 in World Athletics first

The gold medal at the Paris Olympics (centre) will come with prize money – Reuters/Stephanie Lecocq

Athletics has become the first sport to offer prize money to Olympic champions, with the sport’s governing body announcing on Wednesday the 48 gold medallists in Paris this year will earn $50,000 (£39,000).

There will be no cash prize for those who claim silver or bronze in Paris, but there are plans to introduce money for those coming second and third at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Relay teams who claim gold will share a $50,000 pot.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, 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 modern Olympics originated as an amateur sports event and the International Olympic Committee does not award prize money, though many medalists receive payments from their countries’ governments, national sports bodies or from sponsors.

Meanwhile, organisers of Paris 2024 have admitted that the triathlon events could be postponed or become a duathlon for the first time in Olympic history because of pollution in the Seine river.

With barely 100 days until the start of the Olympic Games on July 26, a French water charity has warned about the “alarming” state of the Seine and the “risks faced by athletes moving in contaminated water”.

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