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World Athletics to reward prize money to Paris gold medalists

Published Apr 11, 2024 05:52 am

At A Glance

  • Pole vaulter EJ Obiena got the needed boost in his 2024 Paris Olympics campaign after World Athletics announced Wednesday, April 11, it would introduce prize money at this year's Games.

Pole vaulter EJ Obiena got the needed boost in his 2024 Paris Olympics campaign after World Athletics announced Wednesday, April 11, it would introduce prize money at this year’s Games.

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EJ Obiena is the country's best bet to win the gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. (File Photo)

The world governing body for the sport said it would pay $50,000 to gold medalists in Paris -- a move that is said to be a symbolic break with the amateur past of the Olympics in one of the Games’ most-watched events.

With the development, track and field is set to become the first sport to introduce prize money to the Olympics, with World Athletics setting aside $2.4 million to pay the gold medalists across the 48 men’s, women’s and mixed events in the Paris program.

Obiena has been the country’s best bet to win the gold medal in Paris with his current world ranking at No. 2.

But even without World Athletics’ prize purse, the 28-year-old Asian record holder is expected to receive lucrative incentives including from the government should he win the Olympic gold.

According to the Sports Benefits and Incentives Act, an athlete who wins an Olympic gold medal will get P10 million.

The private sector is also entitled to provide rewards the same way it did to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who won the country’s first Olympic gold medal in 2020 Tokyo Games.

The modern Olympics originated as an amateur sports event and the IOC does not award prize money. However, many medalists receive payments from their countries’ governments, national sports bodies or from sponsors.

Athletes will have to pass “the usual anti-doping procedures” at the Olympics before they receive the new prize money, World Athletics added.

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