International Boxing Association (IBA) will offer prize money to all Olympic medallists at this year's Paris Games; boxers who win gold will earn $100,000, with half of that amount kept by athlete and remaining 50 per cent shared between the fighter's coach and national federation
Wednesday 29 May 2024 17:28, UK
The International Boxing Association (IBA) will offer prize money to all Olympic medallists at this year's Paris Games.
The body, which is not organising the boxing in France after it was stripped of recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, will award $100,000 (£79,000) to gold medallists, $50,000 (£39,000) for silver medals and $25,000 (£19,000) for bronze.
Of those amounts, half will go the medalling athlete, with the other 50 per cent shared between their coach and national federation.
Boxers who lose in the quarter-finals and finish fifth will each receive $10,000 (£7,900), with IBA president Umar Kremlev saying more than $3.1m (£2.4m) will be distributed to over 100 athletes.
Kremlev said: "Our athletes and their efforts must be appreciated. The IBA offers opportunities and invests considerably in our boxers, they remain as the focal point, and we will continue to support them at all levels.
"We pride ourselves on being among the pioneers in rewarding the athletes for their Olympic successes.
"As IBA president, I will always fight for our athletes' well-being, and this step is consistent in terms of the existing commitments we have already taken."
Chris Roberts OBE, the IBA's secretary general and chief executive, added: 'We are setting a clear example for many on how international federations should be treating their champions.
"This is real support with real actions, a thing that has become rare in the international sports environment. We are happy to be the lead sport to have this opportunity to support our boxers and reward them for their hard work and dedication."
The International Olympic Committee [IOC] released a strong statement on Wednesday evening, asking for more transparency about the decision from the IBA.
Boxing is currently not on the programme for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, which the IOC pointed out in its lengthy response.
"The IOC has taken note of the decision by the International Boxing Association with regard to prize money," read the statement.
"As always with the IBA, it is unclear where the money is coming from. This total lack of financial transparency was exactly one of the reasons why the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA.
"The IBA was not prepared to transparently explain the sources of its financing or to explain its full financial dependency, at the time, on a single state-owned company, Gazprom.
"Due to the suspension and the subsequent withdrawal of recognition by the IOC in 2023, the IBA had no involvement in either the qualification for or the organisation of the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and is not involved for Paris 2024, either.
"The qualifications and the Olympic tournaments were and are being organised by boxing units set up by the IOC, to protect the athletes, the National Boxing Federations and their respective National Olympic Committees [NOCs]. For all these reasons, boxing is currently not on the sports programme of the Olympic Games LA28.
"The IOC has made it very clear that it cannot again organise such Olympic boxing competitions. In order to remedy this, Olympic boxing needs to be organised by a credible, well-governed International Federation.
"It is therefore already clear that any boxer whose National Federation adheres to the IBA will not be able to participate in the Olympic Games LA28. The respective NOC will have to exclude such a National Boxing Federation from its membership."
Track and field became the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics, with World Athletics saying it would pay $50,000 (£39,195) to gold medallists in Paris.
The governing body of athletics said it was setting aside $2.4m (£1.81m) to pay the gold medallists across the 48 events on the track and field program for this year's Paris Olympics. Relay teams will split the $50,000 between their members.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement at the time: "While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is."
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