The IOC introduces direct support for all Olympians for the first time: every eligible athlete will receive 10,000 dollars
For the first time in history, the International Olympic Committee will directly financially support every eligible athlete who competes at the Olympic Games. According to the IOC's official announcement of June 24, 2026, the new programme is called the "Fit for the Future Olympian Grant" and provides for a payment of 10,000 US dollars per Olympian, starting with athletes who competed at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. The IOC is not presenting this payment as a reward for results or as a classic bonus, but as a form of support and recognition for the many years of work, costs and sacrifices that precede an appearance on the greatest sporting stage. This opens one of the most important questions in contemporary Olympic sport: should athletes who create the fundamental value of the Games receive a direct share of the financial pie of the Olympic movement.
According to the information published by the IOC, the support is designed as a universal measure, not as an addition reserved for winners, medallists or athletes from economically stronger systems. Olympians should be entitled to the amount regardless of the sport in which they compete, the national Olympic committee they come from and whether they have won a medal. In practice, this means that the same basic amount can be received both by globally known professionals and by athletes from smaller or less well-funded sports systems, provided that they meet the prescribed rules. Such a model differs from national medal rewards, which vary considerably from country to country, as well as from sponsorship contracts that mostly follow the most visible disciplines and the most market-recognisable names.
Support for everyone, but with clear conditions
According to the IOC announcement and reports by international media, the payment will be linked to compliance with Olympic rules and a clean anti-doping status. Athletes who fail a doping test or violate the Olympic Charter will not be able to count on the support, and The Guardian reported that the money should be paid six months after participation in the Games. In this way, the IOC is trying to connect the new financial measure with the message that the support applies to athletes who respect the rules of competition, the anti-doping system and the values of the Olympic movement. According to German reports that referred to decisions from an extraordinary IOC session in Lausanne, payments should be channelled through national Olympic committees and should not be used as a reason to reduce other support or rewards that athletes receive in their systems.
In recent years, the IOC has increasingly emphasised the protection of "clean athletes", and the IOC's official anti-doping information states that part of the operational responsibilities for doping control at the Games has been delegated to the International Testing Agency. The Olympic Charter, according to the IOC's official description, regulates the organisation and functioning of the Olympic movement and the conditions for holding the Olympic Games. In that context, the new support is not only a financial move, but also an attempt to tie direct payment to a broader regime of responsibility for athletes and sports organisations. Such a condition could also be important for the public perception of the programme, because the Olympic movement has for years faced pressure to be at the same time financially fairer to athletes and stricter toward rule violations.
The first beneficiaries come from the Milano Cortina 2026 Games
The first athletes covered by the new measure will be participants in the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, held in Italy from February 6 to 22, 2026. According to official Olympics.com data, those Games brought together more than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries and were held at 15 competition venues in 16 sports disciplines. In the broader cycle, when the Summer and Winter Olympic Games are added together, The Guardian states that around 14,000 athletes could be covered by the payment, with an estimated cost of approximately 140 million dollars. That amount is large in absolute terms, but it is also viewed in relation to the financial strength of the Olympic system, which generates revenue primarily from media rights, global sponsorships and related commercial contracts.
The decision was made in a period in which there is increasingly strong debate about how Olympic revenues are distributed and how much money ends up directly with athletes. On its finance pages, the IOC states that, as a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, it distributes around 90 percent of its revenues to organisations within the Olympic movement for the purpose of staging the Games and developing sport around the world. In its announcement on the 2024 annual report, the IOC stated that in the period from 2021 to 2024, an amount equivalent to 4.7 million dollars went into sport and sports organisations every day. Critics of such a model have for years pointed out that redistribution through federations, organising committees and national Olympic committees does not necessarily mean that athletes receive direct and predictable support. That is precisely why the new programme carries symbolic weight: for the first time, a basic payment tied to the very status of being an Olympian is being established.
A shift after decades of Olympic amateurism
The Olympic movement long rested on the ideal of amateurism, although that concept gradually changed as elite sport became more professional, more expensive and commercially stronger. Appearance at the Games was for decades portrayed as the greatest reward in itself, while financial support mostly came from national systems, scholarships, clubs, military or university programmes, sponsorships and family resources. Such a model never affected all athletes equally. Individuals from globally popular sports could generate high sponsorship revenues, while many Olympians from less visible disciplines simultaneously had to coordinate training, qualifications, work, education and travel costs.
The new measure does not solve all those differences, but it recognises them at the level of the Olympic system. The IOC's decision is especially important for athletes who do not win medals, because they make up the great majority of the Olympic population and often have significantly fewer opportunities for commercial earnings. From an athlete's perspective, 10,000 dollars will not have the same value in all countries and all careers, but it can cover part of the costs of preparations, health care, equipment, expert work or the transition to life after professional sport. It is precisely that transition that is an increasingly frequent topic in the Olympic movement, because many athletes after the end of their careers have neither stable income nor a developed professional network outside sport.
Pau Gasol: every Olympic story includes years of work
The programme was presented with a strong role for the IOC Athletes' Commission, led by Pau Gasol, the former Spanish basketball player, Olympic medallist and long-time NBA player. According to The Guardian, Gasol emphasised that the support will be available to every Olympian, not only to medal winners or athletes from particular countries. His message is directed at the idea that Olympic participation is the result of a long-term process, and not only a few days or weeks of competition in front of television cameras. For some Olympians, that process includes multiple Olympic cycles, injuries, uncertain qualifications, private costs and years in which it is almost impossible to generate a stable income outside sport.
Gasol, according to the same report, also emphasised that the amount is not conceived as a prize fund. That distinction is important because the IOC is trying to maintain the line between universal support and rewarding sporting results. Prize funds by definition create a hierarchy according to ranking, while this measure recognises the very act of qualification and participation in the Games. In this one can see a compromise between the traditional Olympic position that medals should not be directly linked to money and the increasingly loud demand from athletes that the Olympic system must participate more concretely in financing their careers.
Kirsty Coventry and the broader reform programme
The decision comes during the term of IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the former swimmer from Zimbabwe and Olympic champion. According to official IOC data, Coventry was elected on March 20, 2025 as the organisation's tenth president, the first woman and the first person from Africa in that position, and her term began after the end of Thomas Bach's mandate on June 23, 2025. The new fund is part of the broader "Fit for the Future" framework, through which Coventry is trying to adapt the Olympic movement to changes in global sport, the economy, media and athletes' expectations. The Guardian conveyed her message that this measure is only the beginning of the next chapter, not the end of the debate about the role of athletes in the Olympic model.
Even before taking over the presidential role, Coventry was connected with the work of athletes' bodies within the IOC, which gives the new decision additional political weight. The debate about paying Olympians intensified after some active and former athletes publicly criticised the difference between the large revenues of the Olympic system and the financial insecurity of a large share of competitors. Al Jazeera reported at the end of May 2026 on the criticism that followed Coventry's statements about Olympic rewards, while other media reported athletes' proposals to introduce participation fees and additional medal bonuses. The new support can be read as a response to that pressure, but also as an attempt by the IOC to shape the model itself before the debate grows into a demand for a formal share of athletes in revenues.
How the measure differs from medal rewards
In many countries, Olympians have for decades received state or national rewards for medals won, but the amounts differ considerably and depend on economic possibilities, sports policies and local tradition. Some national Olympic committees or governments pay high cash bonuses, while others offer more modest support or rely on scholarships and preparation programmes. The IOC's 10,000-dollar model introduces a common baseline that is not tied to a medal, but to Olympic participation. This does not abolish national rewards, but it establishes a new global level of recognition for participation.
Comparison with the decision of World Athletics additionally shows how quickly the Olympic model is changing. In April 2024, World Athletics announced that it would become the first international federation to pay prize money at the Olympic Games, starting with 50,000 dollars for athletics gold medallists in Paris 2024. According to the World Athletics announcement, that fund was financed from its share of Olympic revenues and was intended to mark a new approach to valuing athletes. By contrast, the IOC support does not reward victory, but qualification and participation. In this way, the circle of athletes who receive direct benefit is expanded, while the creation of an additional difference between medallists and the rest of the Olympic field is avoided.
Open questions: taxes, implementation and long-term sustainability
Although the principle of the programme is clear, some practical questions still need to be elaborated or confirmed in implementation. The tax treatment of the payment may differ depending on the country in which the athlete has residence or tax liability, and national Olympic committees could have an important administrative role in communication with athletes. It is currently not clear whether all athletes will receive funds in the same way and within the same deadline in all jurisdictions, nor how cases of subsequent doping proceedings, changes of results or disciplinary decisions after the end of the Games will be handled. According to the available information, the IOC intends to connect the programme with respect for the rules, which means that the final administrative rules will be as important as the political decision on the payment itself.
The long-term sustainability of the programme will depend on the revenues of the Olympic movement and on whether the support remains in the same form for the next summer and winter cycles. If the estimate of around 14,000 athletes per combined summer-winter cycle proves stable, the basic cost would amount to around 140 million dollars per full round of payments. That is an amount that could become a permanent item in the Olympic budget, but also a reference point for future demands. Once direct support for all Olympians is introduced, athletes and their commissions will probably continue the discussion about whether the amount should grow, whether it should be indexed, how to include the Paralympic system and whether part of the revenues should be structured as a longer-term fund for career transition.
A new balance between tradition and professional sport
The IOC's decision does not mean a complete change in the Olympic economic model, but it marks an important departure from the earlier approach in which direct payments to athletes were the exception, not the rule. Today, the Olympic Games are a global media event that attracts billions of viewers, major sponsors and complex broadcasting contracts. Without athletes, that system would have no value, yet it was precisely athletes who were often last in the chain of direct financial benefit. The new 10,000-dollar grant does not equate Olympians with professional leagues in which athletes receive contracted shares of revenues, but it changes the starting point of the debate: Olympic participation now receives an officially recognised financial value at the level of the IOC.
For many Olympians, the greatest value of the Games will still be sporting, symbolic and professional. Medals, competing under the flag of a national Olympic committee, personal achievements and a place in sports history cannot be reduced to the amount of support. But for athletes who train for years without secure contracts, pay part of their own preparations or start over after their careers, money is not a secondary issue. By deciding to award every eligible Olympian 10,000 dollars, the IOC has recognised that the Olympic ideal and the financial security of athletes can no longer be separate topics.
Sources:
- International Olympic Committee – official announcement on the "Fit for the Future Olympian Grant" programme and support of 10,000 US dollars for Olympians (link)
- The Guardian – report on the amount of support, the estimated number of athletes covered, payment conditions and statements by Pau Gasol, Kirsty Coventry and Sebastian Coe (link)
- Olympics.com – official data on the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, dates, number of athletes and sports disciplines (link)
- IOC Finance – official overview of financing and revenue redistribution within the Olympic movement (link)
- IOC Annual Report 2024 – official announcement on the annual report and investment of revenues in the sporting community (link)
- IOC Olympic Charter – official description of the Olympic Charter and its role in the organisation of the Olympic movement (link)
- IOC Fight Against Doping – official information on the anti-doping system at the Olympic Games and the role of the International Testing Agency (link)
- IOC President Election 2025 – official data on the election of Kirsty Coventry as president of the International Olympic Committee (link)
- World Athletics – official announcement on the introduction of prize money for Olympic winners in athletics at the Paris 2024 Games (link)
- Al Jazeera – report on the public debate and athletes' criticism regarding Olympic payments and rewards (link)
- Welt / dpa – report on the implementation elements of the programme, including the role of national Olympic committees and the conditions for losing the right to support (link)