Paris 2024 Olympics: Gold medalists to be rewarded with $50,000 in 'landmark decision'

The World Athletics Organization announced on Wednesday that gold medalists in track and field will receive $50,000 at the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. World Athletics is the very first international sports governing body to allocate prize money for gold medalists at the Olympics, following in the footsteps of several other nations’ Olympic committees. The International Olympic Committee, or IOC, does not currently reward event winners with prize money in keeping with the amateur tradition of the games.

World Athletics, which is a governing body for Track & Field, as well as other running sports, plans to give gold medal winners in all 48 track and field events at the Paris Summer Olympics $50,000. The sum for winners of group events, such as the 4x100m relay, will also be $50,000, split between the members of the team.

World Athletics plans to extend prize money for silver, bronze medalists for 2028

The $50,000 prize is just the first step World Athletics plans to take for medaling Olympians. At the LA games in 2028, they’ll also hand out prize money for silver and bronze medalists, however, the pay structure for that plan has yet to be revealed. The total sum of money to be paid to gold medalists at the Paris Olympics this summer will be $2.4 million, spread across the 48 events.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe told reporters that the move is meant “to recognize that the revenue share that we receive is in large part because our athletes are the stars of the show,” according to Time Magazine. The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that the IOC distributes to World Athletics.

“I’m probably the last generation to have been on the 75-pence (95-cent) meal voucher and second-class rail fare, competing for my own country. So believe me, I do understand the nature of the transition we’ve been in,” Coe said. “It’s a completely different planet from when I was competing, so it’s very important that this sport recognizes the change in that landscape and the added pressures on many competitors.”

Coe also told reporters that World Athletics gave the IOC a heads-up about its plans before making the announcement on Wednesday. The International Olympic Committee has yet to respond.

World Athletics currently pays out more money for athletes winning events at their own competitions. In Budapest in 2023, the organization distributed winnings from first place down to the eighth place finishers, with $70,000 for individual gold medalists.