By Karolos Grohmann.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has suggested that instead of offering prize money for Olympic gold medallists in Paris, World Athletics should focus its funding on supporting athletes at the other end of the spectrum.
Athletics broke with a 128-year tradition in April by announcing it would become the first sport to offer $50 000 in prize money for its Olympic champions, starting in Paris this year.
The announcement by World Athletics (WA) President Sebastian Coe, who is also an IOC member but did not discuss his plan with the Olympic body, was welcomed by many athletes.
It was also met with sharp criticism from other international sports federations which accused Coe of failing to consult them prior to his unilateral move.
“This is not a discussion about prize money because prize money exists for decades,” Bach said in an online media roundtable on Friday.
“My (fencing) teammates and I in 1976, we received prize money for our gold medal through the foundation supported by the national Olympic Committee (of Germany). In the meantime this is more or less common practice among NOCs.”
Bach said while sponsors, governments or private institutions could provide payments to athletes for Olympic success, the role of an international sports federation was not that.
“This question in principle is a question of how to support the athletes best,” Bach said.
Financial Wellbeing
Coe told reporters at the World Athletics Relays Bahamas on Friday that WA must take an active role in supporting its athletes’ financial wellbeing.
“It’s a balance and we’ve put a lot of money into development and integrity – much more, actually, than we earmarked for our prize money and that’s the way it should be,” he said.
“I can’t just keep standing up and saying ‘we’re growing the sport and we’re bringing new sponsors on board’. The athletes have to see some connection between growing the sport and their own wellbeing and welfare.”
Bach said he expected the Paris Games, starting on July 26, to be secure despite the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and he was not expecting protests on the field of play, or athletes refusing to compete against those from other nations for political reasons.
“All indicators are showing that the whole world wants to participate and that the athletes who are coming will compete in full respect of the Olympic Charter,” he said.
The IOC has been supporting the Israeli and Palestinian Olympic committees and should Palestinian athletes fail to qualify they would receive invitations as part of the Games’ universality quotas.
“This is what we are working for and this is why we are supporting both NOCs and supporting in particular the Palestinian athletes who have not qualified on the field of play,” Bach said.
The Russian Olympic Committee was suspended last year after it recognised regional organisations from four territories annexed from Ukraine.
Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete in Paris but as neutrals without their flag, anthem or national emblems.