By Karolos Grohmann
ATHENS (Reuters) – World Athletics’ decision to start offering prize money to Olympic champions should not be seen as a template for all other sports, the body’s chief Sebastian Coe, who runs for president of the International Olympic Committee, said on Friday.
Coe, a former Olympic champion who also led the 2012 London Olympics, is one of seven candidates campaigning to replace outgoing IOC chief Thomas Bach, with the vote set for March 20 at the body’s session in Greece.
World Athletics announced its prize money for gold medallists decision unilaterally ahead of last year’s Paris Games without consultation with the IOC, of which Coe is a member, or other international sports federations.
The decision angered the IOC and some federations at the time which opposed such a move, saying not all athletes were benefiting from it. World Athletics has said it will offer prize money to all medallists in the sport at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
“Prize money was implemented by the sport in response to a very specific issue in track and field,” Coe said in a conference call with news agencies, adding track and field athletes were being recruited by other sports. “We gave them (an) incentive to remain in the sport.”
The Briton, however, said should he win the election next week he would not enforce such a model for other sports.
“Nobody in the Olympic landscape should conclude that because I had a mandate in World Athletics… that this is a one-size-fits-all. That I suddenly walk straight into the (IOC) office in Lausanne next week and tell everybody they are taking prize money,” he said.
“Absolutely not. I would encourage the discussion about what more can we do to create true and genuine commercial partners out of our athletes.”
“Nobody should run away with the idea of a one-size-fits-all. It is a collaborative discussion,” Coe added.
Coe is up against multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, as well as Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the late former IOC president.
International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the candidates’ lineup.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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