Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith had a frustrating 2024 season, although she ended it with a flourish, but how much did she earn from the topsy-turvy campaign?
Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith is among the top female sprinters in the world and perhaps the most famous one in Africa given she is the continent’s record holder.
With that, there is always an expectation on her whenever she heads into various global championships but she has not always been lucky when it comes to winning medals.
Ta Lou-Smith’s career has been littered with near misses with her two silver medals in both 100m and 200m in 2017 and bronze in 100m in 2019 the last she won at the World Championships.
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05:44 - 19.11.2024
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She has been at the Olympics three times with the first two yielding fourth places before eighth place in 100m in Paris this year when an injury hampered her and locked her out of the 200m.
The 36-year-old Ivorian sprinter had a topsy-turvy 2024 season that saw her play second fiddle to her rivals but completed it with a major triumph.
So, in a season filled with disappointments, what did Africa’s fastest woman earn?
Ta Lou-Smith is perhaps the female athlete who featured in more Diamond League races this year, having made appearances at seven series meetings and that is besides the final that took place in Brussels, Belgium.
Strangely though, she did not win any of them even in races where the big hitters were missing, raising questions over her pedigree, although she complained of niggling injuries early in the season.
She started her Diamond League races at the Prefontaine Classic in May, finishing sixth in 100m to take home just $1,000, but improved massively to record back-to-back second place finishes in Oslo and Stockholm (100m and 200m) for a total prize purse of $12,000.
She could only manage fifth and then fourth in Monaco and Lausanne for combined earnings of $3,250.
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15:00 - 19.09.2024
'Nothing was enough this year'- Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith reflects on her 2024 season
Africa's fastest woman has disclosed that 2024 has been her toughest season since she began her career after failing to achieve any of her goals and noted why she remains optimistic as she takes her break and prepares for 2025.
Post-the Olympics, there was second place in Silesia, earning her another $6,000 and then fourth place in Zurich for $2,000, taking her total from the Diamond League series to $24,240 (Ksh3.1 million).
She qualified for the Diamond League final in both 100m and 200m but only featured in the former, finishing third to earn $7,000, while getting disqualified from the latter.
Ta Lou-Smith, however, saved the best for last as she was crowned winner of the 100m race at Athlos NYC, the women’s-only track event, where winners per each discipline were getting paid $60,000.
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10:30 - 27.09.2024
'I have to do six Diamond Leagues to win that'- Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith speaks on impact of Athlos' prize money
Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith won the 100m at the inaugural Athlos event in New York, earning $60,000 and hinting she might postpone her retirement due to the event's high rewards and positive impact on athletes.
She described it as her biggest pay cheque ever, explaining how she needed to win six Diamond League races to claim such an amount.
That huge windfall boosted Ta Lou-Smith’s season’s earnings significantly, taking her total from the season to $91,250 (Ksh12 million) to cap off a frustration campaign in style.
Having turned 36 this month, Ta Lou-Smith knows she does not have a lot of time left and she will need to stay on top of her game in the coming season to win as many races as possible, which means more money, before she can finally call it a day.
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