Grant Fisher and Abdihamid Noor compete in the men's 5,000-meter final during day 10 of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on June 30, 2024.
Patrick Smith | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has defended the decision to pay prize money to track and field gold medallists for the first time at this summer's Paris Olympics, and suggested the initiative could be extended to future Olympics.
The former British athlete and four-time Olympic medallist told CNBC last week that it's “inconsistent” for sports governing bodies to not pay their stars but still benefit from lucrative broadcast and sponsorship deals.
“Athletes are essentially the vehicles of our revenue,” he told CNBC's Tania Breyer.
“The performances of our athletes at the Olympic Games and World Championships bring broadcasting rights fees to world athletics at the International Olympic Committee and world championship level,” he continued.
“They contribute a lot to the amount of money, revenue streams and sponsorship that comes into the sport and I've always felt it's really important to recognise that.”
Coe stunned the sports world in April when he announced that for the first time, gold medallists in the 48 track and field events at this year's Olympics in Paris would be given $50,000 in prize money.
This movement, But it sparked backlash from heads of other sports who said placing a monetary value on performance undermined the spirit of the Olympics.
Britain's five-time Olympic gold medallist in rowing, Steve Redgrave, told the BBC in May that the measures would create an “us versus them situation” within the sporting community.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not pay prize money directly for medals, and said last month it was “common practice” for national Olympic committees, governments, sponsors and other private organisations to financially reward athletes for their performances.
Coe said the move was part of a two-part strategy to better value athletes that he has implemented since becoming president in 2015. The first phase focused on allocating funds to World Athletics' national governing bodies to support athletes and disburse funds for projects.
But he noted that direct payments to gold medallists would provide greater “financial viability” and a longer-term path forward for individual athletes and their families.
“It seems contradictory to me as the president of World Athletics to talk about new revenue streams and sponsors such as Sony that we have acquired in the last few months, but not acknowledge that the reason for this economic boom is the performance of our athletes,” he said.
“I think they deserve to be in the game too. That's why we did this, simply put.”
Coe, who is in his third term as World Athletics president, denied rumors he might succeed Thomas Bach as IOC president, saying he was “focused on every minute” of the three years remaining in his term.
The Olympics will open in Paris on July 26 and run until August 11, with the Paralympics starting later that month.
