Olympic athletics champions to win prize money

Athletics has become the first sport to offer prize money to Olympic champions, announcing on Wednesday that the 48 gold medallists in Paris this year will earn $50,000 each to end a 128-year tradition.

Although the concept of purely amateur competition has long since disappeared from the modern Olympics with athletes often receiving payments from sponsors and professionals taking part for more than 30 years, the World Athletics decision is a major shift for the Games to deal with.

"This is an issue for our sport," World Athletics President Sebastian Coe told reporters.

"But I don't believe this is remotely at variance with the concept that the IOC often talks about, which is recognising the efforts that our competitors make for the overall success of the Games."

Coe said there had been no discussion about the plan with the International Olympic Committee, only that his organisation had give the IOC a heads-up shortly before announcing the $2.4 million prize pot.

The IOC, which has yet to comment on the development, distributes revenues from the Olympics to the international federations. A total of $540 million was allocated to the 28 sports at the Tokyo Games with World Athletics receiving the most at $40 million.

The amateur ethos of the Olympics, severely undermined by the success of state-sponsored competitors from the former Eastern Bloc, was swept away when the IOC agreed to allow professional athletes to compete in tennis, soccer and ice hockey at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Basketball followed in 1992 and superstar professionals from the NBA gained huge attention when coming together in the United States Dream Team.

Despite the continuing lack of prize money, athletes in many sports receive hefty bonuses from their governments and sponsors for triumphing in the biggest shop window of all.

Although athletics is the Olympics’ biggest sport by number of participants and TV audiences, the vast majority of athletes, including many medallists, face a constant struggle for funding.

In 1992, the concept of trust funds for athletes was introduced and gold medallists at the 1993 world championships in Stuttgart received Mercedes cars. Gold medallists at last year's world championships earned $70,000, only $10,000 more than when prize money was introduced in 1997.

Olympic silver and bronze medallists in athletics will also receive prize money, but only from the 2028 Los Angeles Games, with details to be announced at a later date.