DPA
Munich
The decision of World Athletics (WA) to dish out $50,000 to its gold medallists at the Paris Olympics is "an interesting and smart political signal,” according to a German sports economist.
While other sports federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have criticised the WA over its decision, German sports economist Christoph Breuer says that it transcends a mere financial reward for the successful athletes.
Breuer, a professor at Cologne’s sports university, told dpa that it was the "interesting and smart political signal, for athletics, for the world governing body and president Sebastian Coe.” Three potential benefits He said WA doesn’t want to lose athletes to other lucrative events such as the big city marathons, and that it strengthens athletics’ position within the Olympic community because the prize money makes it more appealing for athletes which can lead to growing influence such as via athletes’ representatives.
"Athletics has always been a core Olympic sport but that position is not cemented in the long run,” Breuer said.
For Coe, the twice 1,500m gold medallist and chief organizer of the London 2012 Games, it is about "positioning himself when it comes to electing the next IOC president,” Breuer said.
"He is gaining momentum from the athletes with such a popular measure. And although he is not yet IOC president, he can show that he is capable of modernising the Olympic Games and putting the athletes even more at the centre,” he said.
Criticism from IOC and others The IOC, for its part, has said it is not the task of international federations to dish out prize money because it distributes a large chunk of its income to sports federations and national Olympic Committees to support athletes regardless of their results.
The group of Olympic summer sports federation has also said that several of its federations could simply not afford such prize money.
Financial rewards also in the past Most athletes are however paid for top Olympic results, with German gold medallists for instance to receive ?20,000 ($21,800). Other countries have even bigger awards which also includes real estate or pension funds.
Breuer said that Olympic gold "has always acted as an elevator into a higher economic floor,” which also includes lucrative sponsorship and advertising deals, and these days more clicks and followers as well.
Prize money can also help athletes define their interests in a better way against officials, federations and state institutions.
In this respect, Johannes Herber from the Athletes Germany group named the WA decision "a wake-up call for the IOC.”