Online Reporter
THE boss of the International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry is holding firm on her refusal to allow athletes to be paid at the Olympic Games.
Zimbabwean Coventry has been in New Zealand last week enjoying local hospitality and culture, and meeting with various Olympic officials from around the Pacific.
A big focus of Coventry in her first 10 months as IOC President has been making the Games “Fit For Future”.
“We needed to just pause for a little bit and really reflect and better understand and take stock of where we are now, the things that we have, the things that we’re doing. And then figure it out, is it still relevant? Are those the same things that we need to do? How do we evolve?”
Where they won’t be evolving though is athlete payments.
The current model for Olympians sees them financed by a combination of national sporting organisations (often through taxpayer funding), sponsorship and self-funding.
However once they get there, they don’t receive any payment for participation at the Olympics, or for winning.
“I don’t believe in paying athletes” Coventry told Sport Nation.
“I come from a small country (Zimbabwe), I came from a sport (swimming) that doesn’t necessarily pay athletes very well and I still don’t think we should be paying athletes at the Olympic Games.”
Research has shown that of the approximate US$1.5 billion brought in by the IOC per Olympic Games, only 0.5 percent goes back to the athletes, either through their National Olympic Committees or through Olympic Solidarity.
World Athletics became the first governing body to offer prize money to Olympic champions, when gold medallists received about US$50 000 at the Paris Games.
Coventry does believe though that the IOC needs “to find more ways to directly impact athletes and find ways to help them on their journey to becoming Olympians and while they’re Olympians.”
Among those ways are helping with talent identification and career transitions.
“I was an Olympic solidarity scholarship holder without that money. I’m not sure I would have been as successful, and so I’m so grateful for that.”
Among further financial criticisms the IOC’s faced is a lack of athlete compensation when their name, image and likeness (NIL) are used. Essentially, the IOC can use athletes’ NIL to promote or celebrate the Games, but they receive nothing in return.
One of the most high-profile examples of changes to the arrangement came in American college sports. — sportnation.nz/olympics.com
