Track and field’s governing body World Athletics on Wednesday said it would pay US$50,000 to gold medal winners at the Paris Olympics this summer, becoming the first sport to introduce prize money at the games.

The governing body of athletics said it was setting aside US$2.4 million to pay the gold medallists across the 48 events on the track and field Olympic programme.

Relay teams would split the winnings between their members.

Payments for silver and bronze medallists are planned to start from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“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,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

The prize money would come out of the share of Olympic revenue that that the International Olympic Committee distributes to World Athletics and other governing bodies of individual sports.

Athletes would have to pass “the usual anti-doping procedures” at the event before they receive the money, World Athletics added. (AP)