Do Olympians get paid? Everything you need to know about prize money – for some – at Paris Games

By CNN Newsource

Published July 16, 2024 2:43 AM

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) — The Olympics are the pinnacle of many athletes’ careers, and the opportunity to perform on the global stage can see their names etched into history forever.

On the line are Olympic medals – gold, silver and bronze – as well as the recognition that comes with them.

But, unlike many other professional sports, financial reward isn’t necessarily a prize awarded to Olympic athletes in the past.

Here’s everything you need to know about Olympic athletes and the compensation they can receive.

The first ever medals

Gold, silver and bronze medals haven’t always been standardized.

In the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, winners received an olive branch and a silver medal, an award which was first accepted by triple jump champion James B. Connolly of Massachusetts.

Medals were initially designed to be pinned to an athlete’s chest, but the design shifted in 1960, allowing the medal to be hung around the winner’s neck.

It was only at the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis where the now traditional medals were introduced.

The 2024 design

At the 2024 Games in Paris, the medals won by athletes will each contain an original piece of the Eiffel Tower, the 19th-century landmark which has become so synonymous with the French capital.

The Games originated as an amateur competition

While the medals are highly sought-after accolades, receiving one doesn’t come with any financial bonuses directly from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organizers of the Games.

This is because the Games originated as an amateur competition intended to champion athletic success and the spirit of sports.

Instead, the IOC spreads its money far and wide to further help the development of sport and its athletes.

“The IOC redistributes 90% of all its income, in particular to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs),” the IOC said in a statement sent to CNN.

“This means that, every day, the equivalent of $ 4.2 million goes to help athletes and sports organizations at all levels around the world. It is up to each IF and NOC to determine how to best serve their athletes and the global development of their sport.”

And according to Mark Conrad, a professor of law and ethics at Fordham University Gabelli School of Business, that model isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

“I don’t see the day that all Olympic athletes will be paid by the IOC, because the IOC has never thought of them as a labor force – which in some ways they are, because they’re providing entertainment for a mass audience as well as wanting to compete and win medals,” Conrad told CNN.

However, there are more direct methods for athletes to earn money via their success at the Games.

2024 is the first year track and field athletes will receive prize money for gold medals

While the IOC doesn’t offer direct prize money for medals, the governing body of track and field – the most iconic events at the Olympics – will do so after a surprise announcement in April.

World Athletics (WA) revealed that gold medalists in track events at Paris 2024 will receive prize money, becoming the first international sports governing body to do so.

A prize pot of $2.4 million has been set aside by WA from the IOC’s revenue share allocation it receives every four years to reward athletes.

Those who win gold in each of the 48 track and field events in Paris will receive $50,000, and relay teams will receive the same amount to share amongst the athletes.

While the prize money will only be for gold medalists, WA said that it is committed to extending the bonus initiative to Olympic silver and bronze medalists at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

The announcement received a mixed response. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) said it had “several concerns” about the move, arguing that the introduction of prize money “undermines the values of Olympism and the uniqueness of the Games.

“One cannot and should not put a price on an Olympic gold medal and, in many cases, Olympic medalists indirectly benefit from commercial endorsements,” it said in a statement. “This disregards the less privileged athletes lower down the final standings.”

The International Boxing Association (IBA) also announced in May that it will hand out financial rewards totaling more than $3.1 million in the boxing competitions.

Gold medalists will receive $100,000 from the IBA, with the athlete receiving half and the NOC and the athlete’s coach receiving $25,000 apiece. Silver medalists will get $50,000, with the athlete receiving $25,000 and the rest split evenly between the coach and the NOC. For a bronze medal, the IBA will give out $25,000, including $12,500 to the athlete.

“Our athletes and their efforts must be appreciated,” IBA president Umar Kremlev said in a statement. “The IBA offers opportunities and invests considerably in our boxers, they remain as the focal point, and we will continue to support them at all levels.”

The debate around paying athletes

Athletes can also earn prize money through other means.

At a press conference in May, IOC president Thomas Bach explained that it is “common practice” for athletes to receive prize money from NOCs, governmental bodies or through sponsors for their achievements at the Olympic Games.

Bach recalled his own memories of this process, recounting how he and his teammates received prize money from the German NOC for the fencing gold medal they won at the 1976 Games.

At the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, US athletes received a total of $5.6 million in payments for medal performances through “Operation Gold.”

For instance, the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) pays its gold medal winning athletes $37,500, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.

With the IOC focused on distributing its funding to further the development of sports around the world, Bach said it falls upon the NOCs and IFs – who he claimed are the primary beneficiaries of the “commercial success of the Games” – to choose how they incentivize their athletes and provide the best conditions for their delegations to perform in.

“The NOCs, they should use this money to provide to the Olympic Games the best athletes in their national delegation and to support them so that they can compete at the highest possible level in the Games,” Bach said.

“And they do so and then many of them reward the athletes with prize money for winning medals or diplomas or whatever. And this is absolutely in line and fine and common practice for decades.

Bach continued: “The role of the IFs, according to this common understanding, is that they have to make every effort to try at least to close the gap between athletes coming from privileged countries or NOCs and from less privileged countries or NOCs.

“They are, in this way, part of the solidarity effort of the IOC to do everything to create, in the best possible way, equal conditions for all athletes around the world and to help them to develop and to help them to have good coaches, good training conditions.”

But, according to Conrad, the process of receiving money through sponsorships is weighted heavily in favor of the superstar athletes, with many of the lesser-known Olympic participants forced to spend their own money to fund their way.

“Getting those endorsements is not easy. I mean, you really have to be Simone Biles level or Sha’Carri Richardson level to get significant endorsement money,” Conrad explained.

For example, Biles earns $7 million from endorsements, according to Forbes.

“What sometimes companies will do, and it really depends on the level one is in, their endorsement deal will be free equipment and a few promotional events, but not a lot of money. And chances are it’s going to be the Olympic champions who will then get an endorsement for a lot of money.”

CNN’s George Ramsay contributed to reporting.

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