Athletics’ Olympic Prize Money Plan Unfair to Other Sports, Redgrave Says

 This photograph taken on April 10, 2024, shows a detail of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee (Cojo), in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. (AFP)
This photograph taken on April 10, 2024, shows a detail of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee (Cojo), in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. (AFP)
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Athletics’ Olympic Prize Money Plan Unfair to Other Sports, Redgrave Says

 This photograph taken on April 10, 2024, shows a detail of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee (Cojo), in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. (AFP)
This photograph taken on April 10, 2024, shows a detail of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee (Cojo), in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. (AFP)

World Athletics' (WA) decision to give prize money to Olympic gold medalists is unfair to other sports that cannot afford to do the same, Britain's five-times Olympic rowing champion Steve Redgrave said.

Athletics became the first sport to offer prize money to Olympic champions when WA President Sebastian Coe announced on Wednesday that gold medalists in Paris this year will each earn $50,000.

The announcement was met with a positive reaction from the world's leading athletes, with the $2.4 million prize pot to be split among the 48 gold medalists in Paris.

A total of $540 million was allocated to the 28 sports at the Tokyo Games with World Athletics receiving the most at $40 million.

Redgrave, who won five successive Olympic gold medals between 1984 and 2000, said the prize money plan would turn the Olympics into a "two-tier" system.

"If you win an Olympic gold medal in any athletics event, you are able to earn substantial financial gains from those results," the 62-year-old told the Daily Mail in an interview published on Thursday.

"It smacks a bit hard for the sports that can't afford to do this. Rowing is in that situation. We struggle bringing sponsorship and finance into it. This separates the elite sports to the others like rowing, canoeing and most combat sports.

"They just don't have the same funding that there is in World Athletics. I would prefer that the money they're putting in to be helping more of the grassroots of their own sports - or helping other Olympic sports to be able to be at the same level on the same footprint."



Olympic Cauldron to Rise into Paris Skies Each Night

 Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
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Olympic Cauldron to Rise into Paris Skies Each Night

 Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Paris, France - July 27, 2024. A general view of the balloon and Olympic cauldron in Jardin des Tuileries. (Reuters)

The Olympic cauldron that made a stunning first flight at the Paris Games opening ceremony will sit on the ground during the day and rise again every evening.

Paris Olympics organizers said that from Saturday, the cauldron attached to a balloon will fly more than 60 meters (197 feet) above the Tuileries gardens near the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre museum from sunset until 2 a.m.

During daytime hours, 10,000 people each day can get free tickets to approach the cauldron, which is the first in Olympic history to light up without the use of fossil fuels.

Organizers said the electric flame uses 40 LED spotlights “to illuminate the cloud created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles.”