Gold Is Where the Money Is

When the Modern Olympics were conceived 130 years ago, they were intended to be competition between amateurs.  While that seems like a quaint, romantic notion now, it really was a sign of the times.  In the 1890s, sports weren't a profession.  They were leisurely activities the well-to-do did to pass the time.

A lot has changed since then.  Obviously.  Sports have become a multi-billion-dollar business, and it's very much a full-time profession for the athletes, many of whom are well compensated.  Even the Olympics have long since transitioned away from competition between amateurs.  While there are still plenty of amateurs involved, the Olympics have been mainly professional since the 1992 Games in Barcelona. 

Some countries even offer financial rewards for their medalists.  The USOPC, for example, will award $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze in Paris.  That's actually on the low end compared to what some other countries give their Olympic medalists!  (Although, in fairness, with the number of medals the U.S. figures to win, that's an investment of well over $1 million being committed by the USOPC.)

It's not just countries that have the discretion to financially compensate Olympic medalists.  International federations are free to do the same.  And in Paris, World Athletics will become the first.  World Athletics President Sebastian Coe announced on Wednesday that the federation is earmarking $2.4 million of its IOC funding as prize money for the winners.  Gold medalists will receive $50,000 each (in the five relays, the members will split it).  While prize money will only go to the gold medalists in Paris, that will be expanded to the silver and bronze medalists, as well, in LA.

This, frankly, was a long time coming.  Track & field will be the first sport to offer Olympic prize money, but it surely won't be the last!  The question in LA won't be if any other international federations follow suit, but how many?  And, now that this can of worms has been opened, will the IOC leave it up to the international federations?  Or will they directly pay the athletes themselves?

The argument against awarding prize money at the Olympics has always been that athletes don't need any extra incentive to win an Olympic medal.  The Olympic medal itself is worth far more than any prize money.  While that's true, the awarding of prize money won't take away any of that prestige.  The Olympic gold medal is still the Olympic gold medal, the pinnacle of sporting achievement.  Also receiving prize money won't change that.

All the decision to award prize money to the gold medalists does is acknowledge the reality that these are professional athletes who deserve to be compensated as such.  The Olympics are no longer an amateur endeavor.  They haven't been in a long time.  Yet, the Olympics--the biggest competition of them all--remained the only major event that didn't award any prize money.  At the World Athletics Championships, they've awarded prize money since 1997, and they also have a $100,000 world record bonus.  So, this is nothing new for the sport.

World Athletics receives one of the biggest shares of IOC revenue.  The $2.4 million being set aside for the gold medalists is just a small portion of that.  Athletes will also receive less for winning in Paris than they did at last year's World Championships in Budapest, where the gold medalists earned $70,000 each.  None of that is the point.  The point is that winning an Olympic gold medal will get you paid.  A just reward for all the years of work put in.

Seb Coe was an Olympic gold medalist himself.  He's always been forward-thinking and athlete-first.  So, it's really no surprise that the sport he leads would be the trendsetter.  It's not the first time track & field has been at the forefront of change.  World Athletics first banned Russia because of the country's doping problems in 2015, long before the other international federations and the IOC.  Here we are, nine years later, and that ban is still in effect (although, now it's also because of the invasion of Ukraine).

Much like the NCAA and the NIL, the decision by World Athletics to award Olympic prize money is an acknowledgement of the athletes' role in generating that massive revenue.  They deserve a piece of that pie.  And $50,000 is not an insignificant amount, either.  That's $50,000 per event, too.  If Noah Lyles wins four gold medals, which is definitely possible, he'll earn $125,000.  Now, while that may not seem like much for a well-compensated brand name like Noah Lyles, just think about how much of a difference $50,000 can make for athletes from smaller countries (in addition to whatever they get from their national federation).

One of the most important points made in the World Athletics announcement was that prize money won't be paid until the ratification process has been completed.  Athletes must also successfully complete all of the anti-doping procedures.  That, to me, is the biggest potential issue.  We've seen Olympic results changed years after the fact because of doping violations.  (They're still changing the results from London, 12 years later!)  Now we're looking at the possibility of dopers receiving prize money, as well as the medal, that they'll have to give back, as well as someone who'll have to be upgraded and paid the prize money they're owed well after the fact.

Even still, there's no way to look at this development as anything other than a good thing.  It seemed like a natural and inevitable progression, too.  Representing your country at an Olympics is honor enough.  But these are also professional athletes, so the idea of them competing for nothing in the year 2024 really was kind of illogical.  Especially with the amount of money generated (for everybody else) by the Olympics.

In his statement, Coe acknowledged that.  Gone are the days when athletes competed for nothing more than per diem and national pride.  Track & field simply changed with the times, which Coe doesn't think is at odds with the IOC's ideals.  In fact, he thinks it only further emphasizes the IOC's focus on the athletes--the ones who there would be no Olympic Games without.  And, while IOC President Thomas Bach hasn't commented one way or the other, Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet is all for it.

Throughout the leadup, they've been promising that the Paris Games will be unlike any Olympics we've ever seen.  We can add another innovation to the list.  The Paris Olympics will be the first where gold medalists receive prize money directly from their international federation.  So what if it's only in track & field?  It's a start.  And a big one at that.