Prize-money row divides Olympic movement
Athletics boss Coe puts cat among the pigeons with US$50,000 for track and field winners
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe’s decision to award prize money to Olympic gold medallists may have been welcomed by athletes, but the move has upset some of his fellow federation bosses and surprised seasoned observers of the Games.
Coe put the cat among the pigeons when he announced last week that track and field gold medallists at the Paris Games this year would receive US$50,000 – a first for a federation at an Olympics.
The total prize fund of US$2.4 million will come from the International Olympic Committee’s revenue share allocation that World Athletics receives every four years.
David Lappartient, president of the International Cycling Union 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 offering of prize money that annoyed Coe’s fellow federation chiefs and the IOC. Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing director who retains close links to the body, said: “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.
“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?”
The International Tennis Federation said it had no plans to follow suit and pay prize money and any change in the future “would be made in consultation with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and the International Olympic Committee”.
Coe has defended his move, declaring the image of the amateur athlete is obsolete. “I’m probably the last generation to have been on the 75-pence meal voucher and a second-class rail ticket when competing for my own country,” he said in announcing the decision.
British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson said: “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?”
Terrence Burns, another former IOC marketing executive, said: “The glue that holds the [Olympic] movement together has always been its ability to remain unified and consistent within its fragile confederacy where everything is connected.”