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Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and World Indoor long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall have reacted to World Athletics’ move to offer prize money at Olympics.
Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and World Indoor long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall have lauded World Athletics for its decision to give prize money at the Olympics.
World Athletics became the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics after announcing that a $2.4 million (Ksh312 million) kitty has been set aside to pay the gold medallists across the 48 events on the track and field programme for this year's Paris Olympics.
Each gold medallist in track and field will be rewarded $50,000 (Ksh6.5 million) while relay teams will split the same amount between their members in what is a landmark decision for the sport.
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The athletics governing body also announced that the cash rewards will be extended to silver and bronze medallists from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and Bednarek and Davis-Woodhall feel it is long overdue.
“I am happy to see it, it is a step forward for the sport and honestly it is about time because athletes have to work their butt off, blood sweat and tears every single day and year and some compensation is needed for them,” said Bednarek.
“There are some cases where you might have somebody at that level but they are not sponsored so that will help them in the long run for the next couple of months or years so I am just happy to see an improvement on that point.”
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Davis-Woodhall feels the step taken by World Athletics shows the sport is evolving since athletes spend a lot of money to prepare and attend events but struggle to recoup their resources.
“It is more money in my bank account, that is good, it is evolving,” said Davis-Woodhall.
“We were talking about this earlier. World Athletics, it isn’t their area so to give money up like that in an area that they are not even sponsoring, just giving money to their athletes is pretty cool.
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“This sport is expensive, there is a lot of money that you have to put out to be great and compete.
“Why do we have to go all the way to Europe, spend all this money and barely get a dime when you come back to the United States?” she posed.
Both Bednarek and Davis-Woodhall are hoping to seal qualification for the Paris Olympics with the grueling 10-day track and field trials slated for June 21-30, 2024 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
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