Who is paying Olympic athletes $200,000 each?

The organization that made headlines for paying Olympic athletes $200,000 each is World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, led by president Sebastian Coe. In a historic first announced in April 2024 ahead of the Paris Summer Olympics, World Athletics announced it would award $50,000 to each individual gold medalist in track and field at Paris 2024, and then announced it would increase that to $200,000 per gold medalist split between the athlete and their team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with $100,000 for relay teams to be shared among members. This was the first time an international federation offered prize money directly to Olympic champions, breaking from the tradition that only National Olympic Committees pay bonuses. The International Olympic Committee itself does not pay prize money to medalists, leaving it to individual countries. For example, the US Olympic Committee pays $37,500 for gold, while other countries pay more or less. World Athletics said the money comes from its share of Olympic revenue distribution from the IOC, which is about $40 million per cycle. Other federations like World Boxing and the International Tennis Federation have considered similar prize money, but World Athletics was the first to actually implement a $50,000 gold medal payment at Paris 2024, affecting 48 track and field events.