Sean Ingle in today's The Guardian noted that World Athletics will give $50,000 to each gold medal winner in Track and Field this summer at the Paris Games. The article implied that the award was almost a unilateral idea and decision made by Sebastien Coe the head of World Athletics. No mention was made whether Silver and Bronze would receive a monetary prize. Track and Field at this writing is the only sport to present monetary prizes at the O's. Noted too was the fact that approximately sixty percent of the world athletics federations also give monetary prizes to their country's winners. When you consider that the average salary of an NBA player in an 82 game season is $10 million, this comes to an average of $121,951.22 per game, The NBA minimum salary is $1.2 million or $14,634.15 per game for the lowest paid player in the league. So bench warming 4 games will put the lowest paid NBA player into the Olympic gold medal class of monetary rewards. In those terms, $50,000 seems a bit of a pittance. In the period between 2017 and 2021 World Athletics took in $7.6 billion dollars in TV revenues and other sources and is said to have distributed about 90% of it back into the sport. What ways that distribution went was not noted. That averaged out to about $4.2 million per day. The cost of the monetary refund to the Paris gold medalists will be $2.4 million. At least there is something being thrown down from the Luxury Box by the V.I.P.'s.
When asked about the money, Norway's Karsten Wahrholm the 400IH record holder said that the 'glory is more important than the money.' The truth rings in that statement, when you consider that Karsten might make more money in a season pulling codfish into a trawler in a good year on the North Sea. And working to prepare for either running sub 46 in the IH or hauling 50,000 pounds of codfish out of the water in rough seas is equally hard. Although running the 400IH might be considerably less dangerous. There is no glory in codfish. And don't ask me if there are codfish in the North Sea. There are. I just looked it up on Google.
Money, Money, Money by ABBA link
In another vein, I am considering starting another blog not related to track and field but life in general based on my experiences the past 81 years. What I need is a catchy title to attract readers. I'm looking for suggestions from all of you. If your suggestion is chosen you will get a free lifetime subscription to the new blog just like you do to this blog. Thank you for your consideration. You may send your suggestion to me at irathermediate@gmail.com All suggestions will be considered, no matter how bad they may be for my health and longevity.
George Brose
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