Olympic Pay Controversy Ignites: IOC President Kirsty Coventry Says No Salaries, No Prize Money

The current IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, has ignited a massive controversy after she publicly condemned paying Olympic athletes for their sporting endeavors. The Harare native expressed her disapproval of providing monetary benefits to athletes and stood her ground on instead trying to find better ways to uplift every aspiring dreamer who wants to make it to the Olympics and to help the current Olympians amplify their profiles to new heights for their long-term development.

Kirsty Coventry hails from Zimbabwe and has been a celebrated swimmer who has won a total of seven Olympic medals. Since retiring from professional swimming, Coventry took over the office of the International Olympic Committee as president in 2025 and, in doing so, became the first woman and the first African to hold the position. Since being in the position, her latest blow to the sporting world has come from her disapproval of paying salaries to Olympic athletes.

Coventry recently told the media that she completely disapproves of paying Olympic athletes, citing her own sport, which historically has not paid well to their athletes.

“I don’t believe in paying athletes. I come from a small country, I came from a sport that doesn’t necessarily pay athletes very well, and I still don’t think we should be paying athletes at the Olympic Games.”

Coventry has, however, backed the solidarity model of the IOCs, which looks beyond just handing out extravagant prize money and salaries that they claim are always taken by athletes coming from developed countries, who usually have access to elite facilities and sponsorships.

Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Olympic winners hardly received any cash prize. However, back in April of 2024, World Athletics made a historic decision and announced a prize money of $50,000 (USD) for track & field athletes, a move condemned by the IOC.

The IOC’s solidarity model is to promote the global sports community towards building a sustainable ecosystem that helps athletes from every country around the world aspire to grow big in the Olympics. The IOC’s revenue distribution model focuses on redistributing the wealth generated back into the Olympics’ global pool to help fund the state-of-the-art resources for every aspiring athlete, regardless of their financial background.

Kirsty Coventry Sheds light on the Athletes’ NIL Debate

Kirsty Coventry has defended her stance against paying out Olympic athletes and also mentioned how, via their NIL (name, image, and likeness) status, they get beautiful venues, world-class infrastructure, and many more benefits instead of their NIL salaries.

“All of that comes from the money we raise. What I challenge athletes and national federations who are asking for more money… the solidarity model is very particular. Now if the entire movement wants us to change, we would not have as many countries or as many sports, we’d be particular on what that would look like,” she said during the same interview.

It remains to be seen how the rest of the federations, national committees, and Olympic athletes themselves view this stance.

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