The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will pay a flat "participation grant" of $10,000 (about 15.3 million won) per athlete to those who compete in the Olympics. The aim is to provide universal benefits to all athletes who simply make it to the Olympic stage, rather than rewards going only to a small number of medalists.
According to the Associated Press, the IOC announced at its 146th Session in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday Korea time that it would create a fund of up to $140 million to directly support athletes through the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
The first beneficiaries will be the approximately 2,900 athletes who competed in the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics. The same system will then apply to the more than 11,000 athletes participating in the 2028 LA Summer Olympics, with a total of $110 million in subsidies allocated for the LA Games alone.
Any athlete who meets the fairness criteria set by the IOC, such as having no doping violations, can apply for the $10,000 after the Games conclude. Even star players who have amassed enormous wealth in professional leagues such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) or the National Hockey League (NHL) can receive it if they wish.
Recently, demands for direct financial support for Olympic participants have surged in the sports world. The repercussions were particularly notable after World Athletics moved preemptively.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe decided to award $50,000 to gold medalists in track and field events at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and from the 2028 LA Olympics, bonuses will also be expanded to silver and bronze medalists.
Amid this trend of prize money being introduced by sport federations, IOC President Kirsty Coventry had maintained a firm opposing stance, saying that "Olympic revenue should not be funneled as prize money to a small number of elite medalists." During a visit to New Zealand last month, she declared that "there will be no Olympic prize money," drawing strong backlash from athletes.
At this session, Coventry confessed, "This grant program was a project that had been prepared confidentially, so it was somewhat frustrating to have to listen to athletes' criticism while keeping the plan hidden."
Pau Gasol, the IOC Athletes' Commission chair and former NBA star who led the decision, stressed, "We have laid the foundation for athletes to be supported not only during their careers but also after retirement." He added, "This is a victory for all of us, and it is different from prize money based simply on performance."
