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≡ THE BIG PICTURE ≡
The International Olympic Committee Executive Board met Tuesday for the first of three days, sending a clear signal of its disapproval of the World Athletics’ first-ever program of an International Federation paying prize money to Olympic gold medalists at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
World Athletics, headed by two-time Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe (GBR), also a candidate for the IOC Presidency next March, paid $50,000 to each Paris event winner. The practice was comprehensively rejected by the Executive Board, with spokesman Mark Adams (GBR) giving a lengthy summary of the discussion at the follow-up news conference:
“There was a large amount of agreement on the topic, I might even say unanimity, and it was a question, it was said, of principle, efficiency and distribution within the Olympic Movement.
“As was said by the Executive Board in June, athletes are in teams of their National Olympic Committees and the NOCs prepare them, ands they should reward them – and, also a reminder, by the way, – this has been done for many decades. Many NOCs do this; the President [Thomas Bach], in fact, gave his own example. He received prize money when he won his gold medal in 1976, so it’s not new.
“It also was stated at the meeting that it is the NOCs know the best way to reward the athletes from their teams, in the national context. As you’ll know, in some instances, athletes get pensions from the state, some get prize money, but it’s very much kind of a national context.
“But perhaps, I think it was agreed by everyone, the best argument, the biggest argument is one of fairness. And here we have some quite good figures: the Olympic Games Paris overall, as you probably know, 91 NOCs won medals. If all the medalists – athletes and teams of all the sports – were rewarded, it would be about 1,000 athletes and teams who would benefit.
“They mostly come from what you might call the well-funded, the privileged National Olympic Committees: 65% of the individual medalists and teams winning medals are from 15 NOCs who were on top of the medal tally.
“And if you count the individual athletes who win medals in the team events as well, the percentage of athletes benefitting from such a prize money model would come from 15 privileged NOCs, but even increases to 75%.
“This means that the prize money for them would only increase the existing inequalities even further. And, of course, I need hardly say it was felt by the Executive Board that this goes against the mission of the International Olympic Committee, and it could very easily downgrade the Olympic Games to an elitist event with competition among only less than 10% of the 206 NOCs.”
Adams went on to explain the IOC’s own programs to support athletes, medalists and hopefuls alike, and then added:
“That was quite a discussion and it was felt that’s why there shouldn’t be prize money also paid by other people, and not just for the Olympians. There are 10,500 Olympians, but also tens of thousands of athletes worldwide who benefit from the IOC’s distribution [of money]. And it would downgrade the Games to an elitist event.
“This was a principle supported by the participants, but particularly by the representatives of the IFs, and as I said, by the athletes’ representative. It’s a matter of solidarity.”
Those federation reps on the Executive Board are Ivo Ferriani (ITA) from the International Bobsled & Snowboard Federation and Nenad Lalovic (SRB) from United World Wrestling. The Athletes’ Commission Chair is Finland’s Emma Terho. Also on the Executive Board is Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakel, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 400 m hurdles, who is also a longtime member of the World Athletics Council.
Observed: Very few federations can afford to pay Olympic prize money, as World Athletics decided to do; in fact, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) doesn’t even pay prize money for its own World Championships!
The IOC and the federations’ own umbrella organization – the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) – came out against the World Athletics payment plan when it was announced in May.
This is an issue that Coe will have to deal with as a candidate for the IOC Presidency next March at the 144th IOC Session in Costa Navarino in Greece.
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The IOC issued regulations for the presentations to be given by the seven Presidential candidates on 30 January 2025, in Lausanne. Each candidate will have 15 minutes to speak to the members, with no questions allowed. Videos are not permitted, but a PowerPoint-style presentation is allowed, using an IOC-provided template.
The session will not be broadcast and members will not be allowed to record them, or even have a recording device in the room.
The actual vote next March will also be held privately, and no broadcast will be made until the winner is announced.
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Reports were made by the organizing committees for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Games and Los Angeles 2028.
IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games Christophe Dubi (SUI) said that the construction of three important facilities for Milan Cortina are “developing according to schedule”: the Olympic Village in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the sliding track in Cortina and the ice hockey arena in Milan.
The volunteer program sign-ups for Milan Cortina is going well, with more than 69,000 applicants so far, for a projected 18,000 spots.
Dubi was also happy to report progress in sponsorship sales for Milan Cortina, noting “We can say that after the Paris Games, there is a new momentum; this was confirmed by L.A. as well.”
As for LA28, Dubi explained the presentation recounted the work achieved in 2024, but also:
“The E.B. was presented the sport plan, and obviously now we have sports that are finalized but also the venues which still have to be confirmed for a number of them, which is understandable in a market that has such an incredible wealth of great venues.
“So, this is probably the first priority for next year, to lock down the venues, which will help as well to develop further the competition schedule and everything that derives from it.”
Asked about the timetable, Dubi explained further that the timing is much easier when construction is not involved, and LA28 is a “no-build” Games:
“We have discussed with them when to make those decisions, because of all the implications in terms of timing and we feel very, very comfortable with where they are at at present.”
He also commended the expansive “PlayLA” program, implemented by the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department, noting “one of the requests, and let’s see if it can be achieved is the fact that PlayLA is so successful that the toolkits and the approach could maybe be replicated in other cities across the United States.”
IOC President Thomas Bach will have a wrap-up news conference on Thursday.
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