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.”
“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.