Paris Olympics 2024: In a first, gold medal winning athletes to receive USD 50,000 as prize money

In a first and a landmark move, gold medal winning athletes at the Paris Olympics 2024 will be receiving prize money. World Athletics will now become the first international sports federation to award prize money at the prestigious quadrennial Games.

Each and every gold medal winning athlete at the Paris Olympics will be rewarded with USD 50,000. This prize money comes from a total prize pot of US$2.4 million, which has been ring fenced from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation, to World Athletics.

While individual athletes will receive USD 50,000, teams (relay teams) will also receive the same amount, to be shared among the team.

While only the gold medal-winning athletes will be financially rewarded at the Paris Olympics, World Athletics has confirmed that silver and bronze medalists will receive prize money from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said the decision is a pivotal moment in athletics and said the move is to empower athletes and the role they play in the success of the Olympics. “The introduction of prize money for Olympic gold medallists is a pivotal moment for World Athletics and the sport of athletics as a whole, underscoring our commitment to empowering the athletes and recognising the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games. This is the continuation of a journey we started back in 2015, which sees all money World Athletics receives from the International Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games go directly back into our sport. We started with the Olympic dividend payments to our Member Federations, which saw us distribute an extra US$5m a year on top of existing grants aimed at athletics growth projects, and we are now in a position to also fund gold medal performances for athletes in Paris, with a commitment to reward all three medallists at the LA28 Olympic Games,” Coe said in a statement by World Athletics.

Coe added that while it is impossible to put a marketing value on an Olympic gold medal, it is important to recognise athletes and reward them. “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,” he added.

The disbursement of prize money will depend upon the usual World Athletics ratification process, including athletes undergoing and clearing the usual anti-doping procedures.