World Athletics president Sebastian Coe’s decision to award prize money to Olympic gold medallists was welcomed by athletes but has sparked a backlash from bosses of other sports.
Coe put the cat among the pigeons when he announced last week that track and field gold medallists at the Paris Games this year will receive $50,000 (47,000 euros).
It is the first time a sports federation will pay prize money at an Olympics.
The total prize fund of $2.4 million will come from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation that World Athletics receives every four years.
In the strongest criticism, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) said on Friday the move “undermines the values of Olympism and the uniqueness of the Games”.
“One cannot and should not put a price on an Olympic gold medal,” it added.
The head of one leading Olympic sport, International Cycling Union (UCI) president David Lappartient, made clear his displeasure.
“If we concentrate money on top athletes, a lot of opportunities will disappear for athletes all over the world,” the Frenchman said.
“We really believe that this is not the Olympic spirit. The proposal was not discussed.”
It was not just the decision to pay prize money that annoyed Coe’s fellow federation chiefs.
“ASOIF was neither informed nor consulted in advance of the announcement,” it said, adding “it is important and fair to discuss the matter at stake with the other federations in advance”.
“What surprised everybody is that Coe took the decision unilaterally with one hour’s warning to the IOC and zero hours warning to other federations,” Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing director who retains close links to the body, told AFP.
“The view of the federations, not unreasonably, is that they have been thrown under a bus. What are you going to do only three months before Paris?” Payne said.
Coe, a double Olympic 1500m champion in the 1980s, said his sport had long since ceased to be amateur “so it is very important that the sport recognises that change in landscape”.
In a statement to AFP on Friday responding to the federations’ criticism, World Athletics said paying prize money was “about underscoring our unwavering commitment to empowering the athletes and recognising the critical role they play in the success of any Olympic Games”.
The statement said it was impossible to put a “marketable value” on winning an Olympic medal.
“But we think it is important to 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,” World Athletics added.
Athletics is traditionally the headline sport at any Olympics and athletes have welcomed the move.
Karsten Warholm, the Olympic men’s 400m hurdles champion, told AFP last week: “To be honest, anything offered in terms of a prize is good for the athletes, it’s motivation.”
IOC ambitions?
Coe’s British compatriots have been critical of the decision.
“Now other sports are clearly going to get some scrutiny or even pressure from athletes saying: ‘Well what about our sport, how can this sport do it and not us?'” the British Olympic Association’s chief executive Andy Anson told Sky Sports.
“It’s a debate we can have, but we need to have it at the right time, and the right place, and together.”
It is not the first time Coe has followed a different path to other federations.
He took the lead in adopting a hardline stance against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, earning widespread praise for banning all athletes from Russia and Belarus from his sport.
Payne though is scratching his head over Coe’s reasoning behind the prize money move.
“He has always been independent,” the Irishman said.
“He is also a very skilled and experienced political operator. He ran a brilliant campaign for London to win (the hosting of the 2012 Olympics).
“(But) this one I cannot make out.”
This has fuelled suggestions Coe might be eyeing the IOC presidency when Thomas Bach vacates the seat next year.
Payne believes that “if it was a presidential ploy, it was a gold medal of an own goal”.
“Because who is electing the president? It’s the IOC members. Many of them are international federation presidents, who are apoplectic with rage.”
