The IOC has created a fund worth $140 million (almost SEK 1.4 billion) to finance the initiative. Every active athlete - starting with this year's Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina - can apply for a grant of $10,000 after the Games, the IOC said in a statement.
“This grant will be available to every Olympian. Not just medalists. Not just athletes from certain countries. Every Olympian,” said former basketball star Pau Gasol, chairman of the IOC’s Athletes’ Council.
The IOC has previously been criticized for not awarding any prize money - neither during the Winter nor the Summer Olympics.
Of course the IOC will pay. They are the ones who have big sponsors like Coca-Cola and Samsung, and it is not a small amount of money, biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson told TT.
Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced that all Olympic gold medalists in track and field would receive $50,000, equivalent to approximately SEK 500,000, in prize money. For the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the silver and bronze medalists will also receive prize money.
