NEW DELHI: The boxing governing body, International Boxing Association (IBA), declared rogue by the International Olympic Committee, said on Wednesday it will pay USD 50,000 in prize money to each gold medalist at the Paris Games.
The cash promise is doubly confrontational for the IOC, which has severed ties with the IBA and does not approve of governing bodies paying prize money to Olympic medalists.
The IBA said, it has a USD 3.1 million prize money fund for each male and female boxer who reaches the quarterfinals in 13 total weight classes, plus their coaches and national teams.
The coach and national team of each Olympic boxing champion will both get USD 25,000, and the scale of payments goes down to USD 10,000 in total for each quarterfinalist.
The source of the money is unclear but the IBA led by its Russian president Umar Kremlev has been supported by the country’s state energy firm Gazprom. The IBA promised USD 200,000 for gold medalists at its 2023 world championships and committed to future increases.
“As IBA president, I will always fight for our athletes’ well-being, and this step is consistent in terms of the existing commitments we have already taken,” Kremlev said in a statement.
The Olympic body did not support a pledge in April by World Athletics to pay USD 50,000 prize money to each of the 48 gold medalists in track and field in Paris. It has promised also to pay silver and bronze medalists in 2028 at the Los Angeles Olympics. Agencies
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