Olympics to offer all Games competitors US$10,000 grants
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International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry speaking at an IOC press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 24.
PHOTO: EPA
LAUSANNE – The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has been under growing pressure to introduce prize money to the Olympics, announced on June 24 that it was setting up a grant for every athlete who takes part in the Games.
The programme was adopted on the opening day of the IOC annual session in Lausanne, where the body also approved amendments to its Olympic Charter, as well as changes to its process for evaluating potential hosts.
While the Olympics have long since dropped the requirement that athletes are “amateurs”, the IOC had, until June 24, been reluctant to pay competitors.
“Every athlete at the Olympic Games will be eligible for a new US$10,000 (S$13,000) ‘Fit for the Future Olympian Grant’,” said the IOC on its website, adding that the total fund would be worth US$140 million for each four-year Olympic cycle.
“All Olympians, no matter where they’re from, doesn’t matter where they finish, would be entitled to the grant,” added the chair of the athletes’ commission Pau Gasol, during a press conference at the IOC Session.
Gasol, a former Spain basketball star, also said the payment would be “acknowledging the importance and relevance of being an Olympian, participating and representing your sport and to your country in the Games”.
“It’s not prize money,” he stressed, while adding that Paralympians would not be eligible.
The IOC said that athletes who competed at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Games would be eligible to apply once the application process had been set up.
Before the latest development, IOC president Kirsty Coventry has consistently opposed such a suggestion.
On June 24, she said that the money for the grants would not cut into the shares of IOC revenue that go to National Olympic Committees or international sports federations.
She said the IOC had decided the US$10,000 figure “was an acceptable amount everywhere that would allow for someone to start something or have it as a little bit of seed money”.
Gasol, a former NBA star, said that even established NBA players, National Hockey League players and tennis stars would be eligible for the grants.
Coventry’s opposition to prize money has drawn a hostile response from some former athletes.
South African Roland Schoeman, a former swimmer like Coventry, launched a petition calling for the resignation of the president and the entire executive board.
“The IOC generates billions. That value comes from the athletes. It is time to demand accountability,” he wrote.
World Athletics (WA) broke with tradition and introduced prize money at the 2024 Paris Games – each gold medal winner in the 48 track and field events receiving US$50,000, with relay runners sharing the prize pot.
“Does this undermine the amateur ethic?” said WA president Sebastian Coe, a two-time former Olympic 1,500m champion, at the time of the announcement.
“We’re now operating in a completely different planet from when I was competing, so it is very important that the sport recognises that change in landscape.”
On June 24, Coe praised the IOC’s new policy, telling his fellow IOC members: “This is a historic moment for the movement, and I’m absolutely delighted to be in the room when this has been announced.”
Canoeist Jessica Fox and retired swimmer Emma McKeon, who both won multiple Olympic golds and world championship titles for Australia, were among the first to react to the news on social media.
“Incredible news for Olympians today with this announcement from the IOC,” Fox wrote on Facebook.
“Very proud to be part of this Athletes’ Commission that strives to keep finding ways to support athletes in their sporting journeys and beyond... It will make a huge difference for athletes.”
McKeon posted an Instagram story with the caption “moving in the right direction”.
The IOC, meanwhile, also made several changes to its charter, including a new paragraph emphasising its political neutrality.
“The IOC’s role is: to apply neutrality at all times, free from governmental, cultural, societal or economic pressure,” reads the addition.
Asked if this greater emphasis on staying out of politics was paving the way for the return of Russia to the Olympic movement, Coventry admitted that the IOC did not know how the change would play out.
“We haven’t had much time to then sit down and discuss a way forward. So give us a little bit of time to see now how we’re going to implement,” she said.
“So, let us do that and then we’ll come back to you.” AFP
