IOC breaks with tradition to offer all Olympic competitors US$10,000 in cash grants
IOC head Kirsty Coventry, who has consistently opposed paying athletes, says the US$140m put aside will not affect funding to national bodies
The International Olympic Committee, which has been under growing pressure to introduce prize money to the Olympics, on Wednesday announced 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 Wednesday, been reluctant to pay competitors.
“Every athlete at the Olympic Games will be eligible for a new US$10,000 ‘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, said the chair of the Athletes’ Commission, Pau Gasol, during a press conference in Lausanne.
Gasol, a former Spanish basketball star, added that the payment would be “acknowledging the importance and relevance of being an Olympian, participating in and representing your sport and your country in the Games”.