Athletics will turn into the primary sport to introduce prize cash on the Olympics this summer time.

World Athletics, the worldwide athletics federation, says it is going to pay Olympic gold medal winners $50,000 (round £39,400) on the Paris video games.

The athletics governing physique mentioned it’s setting apart $2.4m (£1.89m) to pay the gold medallists throughout 48 occasions at Paris’ monitor and area programme.

Relay groups will cut up the $50,000 between their members.

Payments for silver and bronze medallists are deliberate to start on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe mentioned: “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 began again in 2015, which sees all the cash World Athletics receives from the International Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games go immediately again into our sport.”

He added: “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.”

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Coe added that he wished athletes “to recognise that I see a very clear correlation between me announcing the new partners, the Sony’s, the Deloitte’s, the Morinaga’s that come to the table and the fact that they are able to benefit from the proceeds of the growth of the sport”.

He additionally mentioned he doesn’t assume prize cash “remotely” ruins the ethos of the Olympics, saying “rather than have the athletes as the first thought and the last consideration, and singing a good song about how important they are, that needs to be reflected”.

“This prize money I see as a raft of funds that we are making available within the sport that may actually allow those athletes to remain in the sport for another four years,” he added.

“And look, not everybody is going to win an Olympic title at 100 metres or 1,500 metres, but we’ve got 48 disciplines, and this will help the athletes.”

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The fee of prize cash will rely upon the World Athletics ratification course of, together with athletes present process and clearing the same old anti-doping procedures.

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The trendy Olympics originated as an newbie sports activities occasion and the International Olympic Committee doesn’t award prize cash, although many medallists obtain funds from their international locations’ governments, nationwide sports activities our bodies or from sponsors.

As properly as the varied males’s and ladies’s operating races – each with and with out hurdles – gold medallists in occasions together with lengthy bounce, excessive bounce, triple bounce, hammer throw, javelin throw, discus throw, pole vault and shot put will obtain the prize cash.

Race strolling, the ladies’s heptathlon and males’s decathlon Olympic winners will even obtain $50,000.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) instructed Sky News: “The IOC redistributes 90% of all its income, in particular to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs).

“This implies that, on daily basis, the equal of $4.2m goes to assist athletes and sports activities organisations in any respect ranges world wide. It is as much as every IF and NOC to find out methods to finest serve their athletes and the worldwide improvement of their sport.”