"The athletes should not come last": Boris Becker and Martina Navratilova back Olympic Games medalists receiving prize money

Boris Becker and Martina Navratilova advocated for the idea that all Olympic medalists in every sport should receive prize money. World Athletics announced in early April the decision to award monetary prizes to gold medalists in athletics at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The governing body of athletics will have a total of 2.4 million dollars to reward each winner of the 48 athletics events at the Olympic Games. The president of the International Olympic Committee, Lord Coe, said he trusts that the IOC "shares in the principle," although he admitted that the organization had not discussed it.

Navratilova and Becker support prize money for medalists

Recently, at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid, tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Boris Becker participated. The 18-times Grand Slam champion from the United States expressed her support for prize money at the Olympics: “I think it’s fantastic,” said Navratilova. “The Olympics have always been the biggest sports event and the athletes were the only ones not making money.”

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“Everybody was making money but the athletes. So I’m glad that’s changing because for some countries that’s a massive amount of money,” she added. “For some of them it’s a drop in the bucket, but for some of them it’s a step in the right direction. Why shouldn’t they make money? Being a top athlete now is a full-time job. The days of amateurs have gone, thank you.”

Becker and Navratilova are part of the 42-members jury for the Laureus Awards, honoring the best athletes across all sports.

On the other hand, the gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Boris Becker, commented that awarding prize money is necessary considering modern times: “When I listened to Sebastian Coe about prize money I said: ‘Finally someone is coming with the times’.

“Sport today is a full-time job, whether you’re a track and field athlete. a swimmer or in all the other sports represented at the Olympics,” the 6-times Grand Slam champion added. “Everybody makes money off their back, so the athletes should not come last,” Becker concluded.